


Sentinel

by TenSpencerRiedPlease



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Vampire Academy Series - Richelle Mead
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Vampire Academy Fusion, Bucky Barnes Feels, But I have ideas, Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Everyone Feels, Half-Vampires, I Don't Even Know, I'm not entirely certain where this is going, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Magic, Protective Rhodey, Rhodey Feels, Rhodey Is a Good Bro, Steve Rogers Feels, Tags May Change, Teacher-Student Relationship, Tony Stark Has Issues, Vampire Academy - Freeform, Vampires, and yes i know vampire academy sounds like some emo kid shit, i think i'll stop abusing the tags now, i've done a sufficient job summarizing the mythology, it kind of is but the worldbuilding is good ok, just give it a chance its not as ridiculous as it sounds, kind of anyways, like a lot of them, you don't need to have read the series to follow along
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-03
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-08 10:22:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 72,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11079615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenSpencerRiedPlease/pseuds/TenSpencerRiedPlease
Summary: Bucky Barnes, renowned guardian thanks to his impressive skills, loses more than just an arm in a particularly unusual encounter with Strigoi. He loses his charge's life too and Bucky has always loved Steve like a brother. This is how he finds himself at the Academy.Tony Stark has always led something of an unusual life thanks to his Royal lineage, but thanks to his jackass father turning Strigoi willingly he's lost all that status. And to make things worse he has unusual abilities that aren't linked to the usual elemental magic Moroi can tap into. Things are only really made worse when Strigoi attacks become more frequent and more unusual.Rhodey has spent his entire life training to protect Moroi, and more specifically he only has a desire to protecthisMoroi. Tony is his best friend and his charge and Rhodey would do whatever it took to keep him safe, even if he's mostly saving Tony from himself.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've been rereading Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series and I _love_ the world building so I decided to play with it and the Avengers. I don't think you'll have had to read the series to understand this- I've done a decent job setting things up so people who haven't read the series know what's going on. If you _have_ read the series you'll have a lot more insight into where pieces of this story is going. I've borrowed plot points from the movies I have in the tags and the VA series though the exact plot is still somewhat original (I've borrowed more from VA than the movies, I've just combined the events to make things different).
> 
> Anyways, there is some references to drug and alcohol abuse throughout this story so be aware of that. And also Bucky is 23 and Tony is 17 (turning 18 in the story at some point) so also be aware of that. Also I'm not entirely certain where this is headed relationship-wise so those tags may change but I doubt it, just know that is a thing that may happen.
> 
> Well, now that I think I've covered everything in this monster note I hope you like it!

Bucky knew he had a reputation, he had even when he was in school because he had talent, but he was also reckless. His charge though, Steve Rogers, was one of the last of his Royal line though so Bucky had learned responsibility and he honed his skills until he was more than the top of his class. He had graduated with grades and skills so high he was the best in his _country_. It was rumored that his talents blew a few European countries out of the water too but that had never been confirmed. His reputation only grew when he was out in the field because Strigoi, undead vampires that were the inspiration of human horror stories, kept trying to kill Steve and Bucky, well, they didn’t make it past him.

By the time he was twenty-one he was more of a legend than most guardians triple his age. Steve, Bucky thinks, already resented that he was small and weak and not much able to defend himself but most Moroi were in the same boat so he shouldn’t have felt so bad. Moroi were vampires as well, but unlike Strigoi they weren’t undead. They both needed blood but Moroi were still mostly human aside from heightened senses and the need for blood. Strigoi were inhumanly strong, fast, their hearing was far more acute than even Bucky’s would be, and they were a pain in the ass to kill. Moroi could go down the same was humans and Dhampirs could but Strigoi only died if you burnt them to a crisp, decapitated them, or staked them through the heart with a charmed silver stake.

Strigoi also had a taste for Moroi blood and some kind of weird vendetta against the Royal families, which was maybe due to the fact that most Strigoi used to _be_ Royals. He’s pretty certain Steve wanted to smack them around more than he didn’t and he wasn’t an evil undead corpse of a person. Strigoi had a thing for killing off the Royal lines in particular, and Steve being close to the last of his made him one hell of a target but Bucky had always handled it well. His species, Dhampir, made the job easier because he got the best of both worlds out of Moroi and humans. When Moroi used to live with humans they reproduced with them, creating the heartier Dhampir race.

Moroi were usually tall and willowy while humans had more of a variety in size and shape, and they could stand being in the sunlight without feeling like they were going to throw up like Moroi. Dhampirs inherited human strength and endurance and they inherited the heightened senses from the Moroi. They hadn’t, unfortunately, inherited the ability to procreate with each other but they could have children with Moroi and for some reason they came out Dhampirs. Logically one would assume that Dhampir and Moroi children would be three quarters vampire, but that wasn’t how it worked for whatever reason. He met a geneticist once who studied the phenomenon but had no real reason for why it happened. Xavier’s guardian, Erik Lehnsherr, was fucking terrifying though. As a result of the procreation thing Dhampirs tended to stick close to the Moroi. That, and they’ve been trained since birth to protect them with everything they had. Without Moroi there was no Dhampirs- it made for a decent motivation to keep the Moroi from being picked off by the Strigoi.

Bucky had never needed a reason beyond loving Steve like a brother but the pressure to perform was high, especially as a guy. It wasn’t that women weren’t guardians, but a lot of them tended to have children and live in communities with each other. Unsurprisingly they had a reputation for being sexually promiscuous with Moroi men, and they were especially stigmatized for giving blood during sex. The term was ‘blood whore’ and it was something Steve had never been fond of. Bucky either considering his mother was a woman _from_ one of those communes. He used to get into a _lot_ of fistfights over it and Steve had always been terrible at discouraging him.

And then… and then everything changed. Strigoi attacking was nothing new, but then Bucky started noticing patterns, and other guardians were noticing too. Wards were being broken when Strigoi couldn’t touch the stakes that broke them. Strigoi were starting to be seen in packs bigger than two or three- unusual for the species because they tended to despise each other. They were devoid of life, there was no reason for them to seek company with each other and they had no reservations about killing those that annoyed them.

In hindsight it had only been a matter of time before something happened to Steve and Bucky should have known better, but he’s never been trained to be suspicious of humans. He thought the humans at the party were feeders, humans that gave Moroi blood willingly and were usually addicted to the enzymes in Moroi bites, not that they were working with _Strigoi_. When he had been drugged he knew right away but the humans, or maybe the Strigoi, he didn’t know- but they had been smart enough to guess that he’d realize right away. He had fought gallantly but in the end it hadn’t mattered and Steve had been killed.

They had been best friends for a long time but Peggy; she’d never let him wallow for too long so after four months she came to start harassing him. After six months she sent her human girlfriend Natasha to harass him. Natasha was a smart woman- she worked for a human organization that kept the existence of vampires secret from the rest of human society- because she picked a fight with him. When she won the fight he had gotten his shit together because _no_ human should be able to beat him in a fight, not even one trained as well as Natasha. Losing Steve still hurt like hell but Peggy was right, he needed to _do_ something with himself.

So he started training again and that was how he ended up at the Academy.

*

The novices- Dhampirs in guardian training- were excited for the presence of the legendary Bucky Barnes but he was… less excited. Granted that was probably because he wasn’t a novice but Rhodey wasn’t creaming his pants either so he felt justified. “Personally Peggy is more legendary than this guy,” Rhodey says, “and she was his mentor so I feel like she should get bonus points.” He takes a bite of his apple and Tony wrinkles his nose at his friend’s healthy diet. Healthy diets were for losers.

“True. Peggy Carter is fucking terrifying,” Tony says. He had some unfortunate experiences that meant he had some personal knowledge of exactly _how_ terrifying she was. But he couldn’t help but be grateful to her for doing her duty and killing off his father. Though he could have done without all the fallout, but it wasn’t Peggy’s fault that his classmates were jackasses.

Rhodey winces at that but Tony shrugs, “it’s true,” he says simply.

“I know Tones, but I should have known better,” he says softly.

“Look, there’s no sense in pussyfooting around it- no one else does. I mean people have told me in no uncertain terms that they think _I’ll_ go Strigoi too,” he points out. His father had turned by choice, something Moroi could do if they killed someone they fed off of but it was a heavily tabooed thing. Usually people turned for the immortality aspect of the deal but that kind of backfired on Howard. Had he stayed Moroi he probably wouldn’t have been staked but hey, Tony was all for a cruel irony where he was concerned.

“They don’t do that much anymore,” Rhodey says, giving Tony a _look_. Tony, unlike most Moroi, could use compulsion- a sort of mind control that was _also_ taboo- better than anyone they knew. Moroi couldn’t use it on each other, only humans, and they weren’t supposed to because magic was not a weapon or so they were told. Tony, however, had no such reservations and if he had to compel people into _not_ thinking he was going to kill them at any moment just because his jackass father did than he would. It was one of many strange things Tony could do but he and Rhodey were in agreement on not talking about all the other odd magic Tony would do. Rhodey was pissed enough that Tony had gone around and used a bunch of compulsion on all of his classmates because the way rumors flared up and then stopped was more than suspicious. But no one was really looking, the teachers were all too caught up in pitying Tony and even if they _were_ paying attention he’d just use compulsion on them too. Problem solved, Rhodey just worried too much.

Besides, there were some things he couldn’t stand even before his father went rogue and tried to kill his family and being compared to him was one of those things. They have never had a good relationship and Tony was _not_ living in the shadow of what his father had done so he gave his classmates’ minds a _nudge_ so that everyone shut the fuck up about it. The only ones who knew he could do that was Rhodey and Pepper though and they kept it quiet because they didn’t understand it. Tony didn’t either, all he knew was that one day his father came home with a red tinge to his eyes and everything in his world was turned upside down, which he was _not_ here for. SO he did that weird super compulsion thing to people so that he didn’t have to deal with even _more_ bad memories sprouting out of this event. What he had was horrible enough.

Rhodey had _died_ and Tony… Tony was pretty sure he brought him back somehow. It wouldn’t have been the first time things didn’t stay dead around him but he never told Rhodey that. Rhodey, because he’s noble, had thrown himself in front of Tony as soon as he realized what Howard was. He’s been trained his whole life to protect Moroi against Strigoi and Tony was, at least as far as Rhodey was concerned, his charge. So he stupidly tried to fight Howard off and as far as he knew Howard threw him against a wall and he passed out. What he didn’t remember was that he got back up and tried to jump Howard again when he made a move for Tony. Then Howard, Tony was pretty sure, snapped his neck. He _swore_ he could feel Rhodey’s life force leave his body and he just… _flipped._

So he had run past Howard to him in a desperate plea for his life and… well and he managed to wake Rhodey back up. That was where things got fuzzy for him because healing took its toll on his energy levels. Thankfully that was when his mom showed up and she knew right away what Howard was. Even _more_ thankfully her element was fire. Moroi had control over one of four elements and Tony always thought he’d take to fire but he hadn’t seemed to specialize in anything yet otherwise he probably would have lit Howard on fire before his mom did. Tony still wasn’t sure where she even _learned_ to do that. Certainly not in any academy like the one he was in now, magic was _never_ used for any sort of violent ends. Moroi valued it as a sign of life and love, which meant spells like the one his mom used hadn’t been used in centuries or more.

The spell had been nowhere near powerful enough but it distracted Howard long enough for Peggy to find them and she killed Howard herself. The woman avoided him now, guilty that she had killed his father right in front of him, but truthfully Howard had been a monster long before he made the physical transformation into one. Tony was grateful to her but he didn’t know how to tell her that so he let her avoid him.

“No they don’t,” Tony mumbles in response to Rhodey. They both knew why but Rhodey was too frightened to put a name on Tony’s strange magic. Maybe he was worried he was turning into something unnatural too, Tony had no idea and he didn’t want the truth either. He liked having at least one friend he could count on regardless of the circumstance. Pepper was awesome too but she had her own shit and Tony secretly liked that Rhodey all but dedicated his life to giving him constant attention. That probably sounded horrible, it kind of _was_ , but he’s always been selfish.

Rhodey looks him over before he decides to let it go, the place was too public for him to scold Tony for using compulsion to get his classmates to not treating him like shit. It wasn’t like Tony made them like him again, he just made them _shut up_. He felt he couldn’t be blamed for not wanting people whispering about him behind his back and to his face all because his _father_ made choices they didn’t agree with. Howard’s actions weren’t Tony’s and he refused to suffer because of the man anymore. He was _dead_ and Tony wanted every trace of that piece of shit _out_ of his life.

“Barnes must be here,” Rhodey says as the novices all pretty much get up at once and make their way to the doors of the cafeteria. Rhodey rolls his eyes at his classmates.

Tony felt bad for being the reason Rhodey could no longer relate to his peers but it was bound to happen eventually. His whole job was going to be related to killing Strigoi, that bubble where he thought he was some hot shit Strigoi slayer was going to burst eventually. That didn’t make Tony feel much better though.

“Guess so. Gunna go hang out with your classmates like a normal novice or what?” Tony asks, raising an eyebrow.

He shakes his head, “no. They don’t even _know_ what that poor guy has been through,” Rhodey says softly. Before Howard tried to eat him Rhodey had been as reckless as Tony- they were always getting into trouble together- but after? It had been more than a sobering experience. Rhodey had been an exceptional student before this mess but afterwards he had a single-minded focus on training and Tony. Sometimes, if Tony was up to no good, he tagged along to make sure Tony didn’t kill himself but mostly he stayed far out of trouble now. Peggy has sort of taken him under her wing because of this, something that was difficult for her given her mission to avoid Tony.

“No they don’t,” Tony murmurs, remembering how _familiar_ Howard had looked. The sad thing was that Tony didn’t even notice the red in Howard’s eyes at first, he noticed the _anger_. It wasn’t until Howard all but tossed Rhodey across the room that Tony noticed that something was _really_ off with Howard. Rhodey remembered that enough to ask Tony about it once but he skirted the subject. Rhodey didn’t need any more of his shit and Howard was dead so everything he did could die with him.

They eat breakfast mostly in silence until they had to go to class. Rhodey gets up when Tony does, following him out like always. “I have that damn elemental class first today and if I have to sit through another day of being told that _eventually_ I’ll specialize in an element I am going to-” Tony starts but Rhodey quickly pulls him back. Tony goes to ask if Rhodey thought his element class was some kind of threat to his health, which he’d totally agree with if it meant he got to skip it, but Rhodey is looking past him.

“How the hell did you get your hair into a bun with only one arm?” Tony asks.

“ _Tony_ ,” Rhodey hisses at him.

“No seriously, I want to know the logistics of that,” Tony says, head tilted to the side as he examines what had to be a guardian in front of him.

The guy, who was pretty damn attractive Tony might add, sighs and shakes his head, “you’re ballsy kid. And you can figure out how to do most things with only one arm given enough time,” he says. Huh. Tony mostly wanted to know if he looked as good with his hair down as he did with it up. The little wisps of hair that had escaped the bun looked almost artful too, like he had done it on purpose even though that probably wasn’t true.

“Bucky Barnes,” Rhodey says from behind him, “welcome to the Academy I guess.” He’s drawing Bucky’s attention away from Tony asking about the arm thing but seriously, there was _no way_ he got his hair up with one arm. He was going to figure this out eventually.

Bucky, Tony trusted Rhodey knew what he looked like, glances over to Rhodey. “You weren’t with the others earlier,” he notes.

Rhodey shrugs, “I know you’re only human- in a manner of speaking- and they’re more likely to worship you than god,” he says. Given the way the novices talked about Bucky Tony agreed with that statement.

That draws a laugh out of Bucky, “so I’ve noticed. Who’d you watch die?” he asks, causing Rhodey to wince. “It happens to everyone but not usually this young, or at least I’ll guess that’s what happened to you. It’s always a shock at first.” Bucky looks sympathetic, like he understood what Rhodey was going though and Tony supposed he did. There must have been a point where he started this business too.

“His father,” Rhodey says, nodding at Tony.

Something about that must spark something for Bucky because Tony can see the recognition. “You’re Tony Stark,” he says.

“I’m _not_ my father,” Tony tells him very seriously, holding eye contact and pushing the opinion outward like he did whenever he intended to use compulsion on someone. He could tell Rhodey wanted to smack him for being so bold but he wasn’t going to have the new people screw with him. Rhodey already mentioned that this guy knew Peggy, that he studied under her, and he wasn’t having him get any ideas about Tony before he even really knew anything.

A brief look of confusion crosses Bucky’s face and he shakes his head but he doesn’t shake Tony’s compulsion, “I kind of figured. You look like him though,” he says and Tony scowls. His resemblance to his father will forever piss him off, mostly because he knew he was good looking. Why couldn’t he have gotten his looks from his mother? Oh right, the universe hated him. “You don’t seem impressed with that,” Bucky notes.

“Not really, no. I doubt you’d be pleased to look _just_ like a guy who went Strigoi willingly either, especially when that isn’t the only trait you inherited,” Tony mumbles. They called it the ‘Stark snark’; his teachers called it ‘pain in the ass’. Well, usually they were more diplomatic than that but still. And the way he carried himself, he knew, was much the way his father did but the cold exterior and calculated games made sure no one was willing to cross him. As a member of the Royal families it was useful. Who knew his father would go off and kill someone to turn Strigoi and ruin any chance Tony had at _having_ a reputation that allowed him to play political games? Certainly not him.

“Probably not. You get your determination from your mother though,” Bucky says.

Tony squints at him, “how could you possibly know anything about my determination?” he asks. He didn’t know Tony from a hill of beans even if he clearly knew his parents, not that that was surprising. Most people knew his parents before Howard and absolutely _everyone_ knew them after.

“When you’re in this business long enough you learn to recognize traits in people fast, it’s a useful gift,” Bucky says.

“That and the first thing you did was demand how he managed to get his hair in a bun and you didn’t listen to me scolding you. Determined to get your answer,” Rhodey points out, cutting off Tony’s response. He was _going_ to say that Bucky’s mystery shit was annoying and he didn’t need some weird riddle to a question but Rhodey, as always, knew exactly how to shut him up.

Bucky glances between them, a brief frown gracing his features, but he lets his string of thoughts go in favor of sending them off to class. Tony grumbles but Rhodey gives him a _look_ and Tony trudges off to his elemental class.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't going to post another chapter so soon but fuck it. Hope y'all like it!
> 
> Warnings for underage drinking and a little bit of ableism.

The next time Bucky sees Tony he’s perched in the corner of the room watching the novices beat each other up. They’re all still looking at Bucky out of curiosity but most of them have calmed in his presence with enough of Peggy telling them to pay attention. He thinks that her managing to land a full hit in on some Justin kid because he wasn’t paying attention to her training methods snapped them out of their staring. It was amusing to watch Peggy get annoyed, especially in a position where her job allowed her to smack those that weren’t listening.

“Shouldn’t you be in class?” he asks Tony, who was carelessly lounging on the ground out of the way. Peggy, he noticed, did her best to ignore him. It was odd but he knew to leave the woman be.

“Shouldn’t you be minding your own business?” Tony shoots back but the tone isn’t particularly rebellious at the moment.

“Well technically I’m an instructor so your classes are my business,” he points out.

“Well I’m not skipping,” Tony lies.

“Your ass when Peggy kicks you out,” Bucky says, leaving the kid be. Mostly he just wanted to see how Peggy handled the loiterer. It wasn’t as if Moroi hung out in novice classes all that often, she’d certainly notice him over there.

Imagine his surprise when she didn’t say anything at all. When he glances over at Tony he gets a triumphant grin, like he knew that was going to happen, and Bucky doesn’t like it. Unfortunately for him he had novices to deal with. Like the other morning he notices right away the differences between Rhodey and the rest of his classmates but it wasn’t a surprise. When you had no idea the toll killing Strigoi would take you thought it was awesome, then you actually killed one and had a mental breakdown. But it matured you too, and clearly the experience with Tony’s father was enough to sharpen Rhodey’s focus beyond that of his classmates.

Peggy pairs them for sparring first, likely capitalizing on this maturity so that his classmates could actually learn something before having their asses handed to them. They would all assume that his lacking an arm would make things easy but it wasn’t as if this was the first time he’s fought with a limb out of order, it just so happened that the out of order limb was outright _gone_. Rhodey, however, knew better than that and he watched Bucky closely as he circled him, examining his movements. Trying to determine how much, if any, skill Bucky lost with his arm if he had to guess. Smart move.

Rhodey makes the first move, going for Bucky’s weaker side but he deflects the attack easily. He could tell Rhodey hadn’t put much effort into the punch either, he just wanted to test Bucky’s reflexes, how he would react to an attack. Smart move number two. Bucky is the one who makes his next move, landing two hits and pushing Rhodey outside of the lines he was supposed to stay in but he learned fast. By the time Peggy broke it up Rhodey was sweating from exertion and Bucky was barely breathing hard. The rest of the class looked confused, mostly because they had heckled Rhodey in the beginning for taking so long to take advantage of Bucky’s ‘obvious’ weakness but now they weren’t sure if his loss of an arm was a weakness at all.

“Nice job, Rhodes, but in the real world Strigoi don’t wait for you to figure how exactly how much missing an arm might hinder their movements. Think quicker on your feet next time,” Bucky tells him.

“Does that even _happen_?” one of the other novices asks, frowning.

“Yes, you run into Strigoi with disabilities and you shouldn’t underestimate them. They’re just as deadly as the average Strigoi, more so if they’re particularly intelligent,” he says. More than once he’s seen people hesitate or underestimate Strigoi due to their disabilities and it rarely ended well. They were rare, Strigoi with some kind of physical disability, but he’s seen enough of them.

The students look to Peggy and she nods, “it happens and Bucky is right, run into _any_ Strigoi that is intelligent and your job is a whole lot more difficult, disability or no.”

“I thought that being Strigoi healed all of that,” some other student says, confused.

“Not always,” someone else says airily. Bucky looks over to find Tony looking over at them thoughtfully. “Mostly things like mental illnesses, the less severe ones anyways, and asthma and stuff disappear. Most physical ailments stay but some might go. No one is sure how or why some problems stay and some go so I suppose you should all watch out of a one armed badass that packs a bite as well as a punch,” Tony quips. How he knew that Bucky had no idea. Disabilities weren’t covered in novice classes _ever_ , he knew, and it had only come up now because of his arm.

“Hm. Think you could kill a Strigoi with only one arm?” one of the other students asks, head tilted to the side.

“Of course, actually I have. Took awhile to get used to the way I have to move now though,” Bucky says. He was used to the weight of the arm there, balancing his movements and now he had to move in a whole new way. It took time to relearn how to be deadly.

The students all jump in with questions, wanting to hear the story, blah, blah. Usual novice stuff. Rhodey, Bucky notices, stays out of it though. He’d have to ask Peggy more about that later. For the time being he had to deal with wrangling a bunch of antsy teens into cooperating, which he managed by essentially telling them all to attack at once.

From the corner of the room he sees Tony watching as he tosses the students around, experience making him far more talented than them even with his being slightly unused to missing an arm. Rhodey stays mostly out of the mess too, but he is the only student who lands more than a half a hit so Bucky resolves to pay more attention to his abilities. He was going to be one hell of a guardian.

*

Tony had no idea why Rhodey tried so hard in class if he wanted to be Tony’s guardian. Thanks to his piece of shit father his whole family was shamed and if Rhodey was the best he’d get assigned to some other important Moroi, not Tony. Guardians were a limited resource and there was a good possibility Tony wouldn’t even _get_ a guardian after his father’s stunt. His mom didn’t have one anymore despite the fact that Royals _always_ had at least one guardian. Everyone else had to fight for them. Tony was kind of pissed that he was being treated like commonwealth but only because he knew the rules were unfair to them.

Rhodey worked his ass off nonetheless and Bucky noticed that even before class. Peggy noticed too and Tony noticed the obvious favoritism on her part. Granted being Peggy Carter’s favorite was ass because she had a habit of pushing you way harder than everyone else. Rhodey took that with far more grace than Tony would have, always adjusting to her new expectations and surpassing them every time. His classmates were always jealous because Peggy trusted him with things they weren’t trusted with and sometimes that was usually some pretty juicy guardian gossip. He wasn’t supposed to tell anyone but he always told Tony what was going on. Tony felt that was sufficient compensation for that pesky bond they had.

It had started after Howard and it was mostly just Rhodey noticing little things, like how Tony was feeling but neither of them thought anything of that. Rhodey usually knew what Tony was feeling anyways so it wasn’t new. Tony had no idea how long or how much the bond developed before Rhodey noticed that it wasn’t just hunches anymore, that he could actually _feel_ how Tony was feeling. When he told Tony about it finally- Tony felt nothing of the bond on his end- he had no idea what triggered it. He had his suspicions given the events that followed the next week but no proof.

The guardian gossip, Tony felt, would have been mandatory to hand over even before the bond but now Rhodey could _slip into his head_ and experience life through his eyes so he felt it was ten times more mandatory. That hadn’t been a fun discovery and it only happened when his emotions were running high, which was _always_. Oh, and his sex life got shot in the face when he risked a walk of shame in the sun and when he ran into Rhodey he couldn’t look him in the eye. Apparently arousal counted as emotions running high and Rhodey saw some poor person naked when he probably never wanted to see that, which is fair. But _still_. Tony liked to whine.

He did, however, find workarounds not that he’d ever tell Rhodey about them. Alcohol was an obvious one; it made the bond feel fuzzy and muted. Rhodey typically picked up on that one given what he felt on his end but if Tony took a Xanax or Valium first Rhodey didn’t even notice. It kept his emotions more steady and must have done something to the bond to make it feel normal to Rhodey because he never noticed if Tony drank if he took either one of those first. And it had the added benefit of making him feel less crazy on any given day. Pot also helped but sometimes Rhodey noticed, Tony had no connection to determine why Rhodey only noticed sometimes. His guess was that sometimes he was paying more attention than others so he generally only smoked if he knew Rhodey was busy, it decreased his risk of being busted.

Logically he knew why Rhodey was always on his ass about the drinking and the drugs but he didn’t get it, didn’t… well actually he did but that was part of the problem too. Sometimes a guy wanted some privacy, he was entitled to that. And he figured that maybe Rhodey wanted his own time too, time where he didn’t have to worry about being sucked into Tony’s head. Or he hoped so otherwise his best friend was a total creeper.

The weird thing was that Tony was pretty sure Rhodey didn’t mind the bond being there, being sucked into Tony’s head and all because it made him feel better that he knew, if he chose to look, when Tony was safe and when he wasn’t. Granted most days the only thing Rhodey had to save him from was himself but still, he thought it make Rhodey feel better to know for sure what was going on. It almost made Tony feel bad for purposefully finding ways to skirt the bond but not bad enough to stop it. There were things in his mind he didn’t want anyone to see, Rhodey especially, and he just… he just needed time away was all. It was hard when someone had full access to your mind without any ability to control it. So Tony went and found ways to control it himself. Problem _technically_ solved.

Rhodey looks over at him then like he could guess what Tony was thinking but Tony doesn’t let anything show on his face. He hopes his mind is as clear as he knew his face was but he doubts it when Rhodey frowns at him a little, silently asking him what was wrong. Tony shakes his head because nothing was wrong, not exactly. It was nothing Rhodey needed to worry about.

*

Peggy doesn’t say anything about Tony’s presence in her class and when Bucky tries to ask she sends him off to do other things. She was avoiding the subject but he didn’t know how to bring that up without sounding accusatory. He ends up slinking off to do the things she asked of him before he was stuck on guard duty during the day. It wasn’t going to be fun, staying up for the full vampire day- technically night time- _and_ the full human day but he’s done it more times than he could count. Steve used to get sick and he was stubborn, he _hated_ doctors so Bucky was usually the one to take care of him until his sickness was out of Bucky’s general knowledge.

It meant he had to pull a lot of all nighters but he never minded. He had never minded doing anything that kept Steve safe, including avoiding vacations but in the end that hadn’t been enough…

He catches something move out of the corner of his eye and frowns, thinking he might have only seen a branch move or something when a twig snaps. Definitely someone walking then. “Hello?” he asks, wondering if maybe one of the other guardians on duty came this way or something. It wasn’t a Strigoi, they couldn’t handle sunlight at all so at least there was some comfort in that. His guess was that some stray Dhampir was hanging around for whatever reason so he circles where he heard the noise. The last thing he expects is to find a _Moroi_ student standing there with a hand behind his back.

“Tony?” he asks, frowning. He looked like shit, probably the product of being out in the sun, and he looked guilty. “Are you hiding a bottle of alcohol behind your back?” he asks as the breeze picks up.

“No,” Tony lies, looking at the ground.

Even if Tony didn’t have an abundantly obvious tell he hadn’t stuck the cap back on the bottle, Bucky could feel the smell burning his nose. He gives Tony a _look_ and he sighs, “I’ll go back to my dorm quietly if you don’t rat me out,” he mumbles.

“Sure,” Bucky says agreeably enough, “after you hand over that bottle.”

Tony glares at him for a long few moments before he snorts, “ _no_ ,” he says in a snarky, defiant tone.

Bucky’s eyebrows shoot up because he’s never actually had this happen to him. Students, on the rare occasion he had to deal with them before Steve died, were either in awe of him or terrified of him. They didn’t tend to put up a fuss like Tony looked determined to. “Give me the bottle or you can have fun in the office,” he tells him, disliking how stupid the threat sounded. It was a significant downgrade from his usual ‘get the hell away from that Moroi or I’ll fucking cut your head off’. Usually he didn’t actually cut off a Strigoi’s head, staking them was far easier, but still.

“Oh _please_ ,” Tony snaps, “as if I’ll get in that much trouble for being a typical student drinking a little after class.” He rolls his eyes and does his best to put out an air that suggested he didn’t care but there was something in the undertone of his voice that intrigued Bucky.

Tony didn’t seem intent on cooperating so Bucky decides to exploit it. He was good at exploiting the weaknesses of his opponent after all, it was what he was trained to do. He snorts, “oh sure, a Moroi student getting drunk outside at high noon is _absolutely_ completely normal student behavior. If this was some kind of normal activity then where are your friends? Drunk students are terrible at keeping quiet, I would have noticed if someone other than you was out here. And other Moroi don’t tend to prefer the sunlight, you don’t either. So either give me that bottle or you can explain to whatever teacher is awake at this hour what you were doing drinking alone at noon,” he says in a tone that was annoyingly teacher-like. God, if Steve could see him now. He’d probably laugh his ass off at the idea of Bucky being a responsible adult.

Actually he was negotiating with a teenager to hand over alcohol for silence so maybe he wasn’t the most responsible of adults. That didn’t surprise him any honestly, he never had any illusions about being good at this job but Peggy had strangely high hopes.

Tony’s glare holds enough heat that Bucky was shocked he didn’t drop dead from the passion behind it alone. _Jeeze_ , what was with this kid? “Fine,” Tony snarls, holding out the bottle he was holding behind his back. Bucky goes to take the bottle but Tony holds onto it for a moment, leaning in towards him. “And next time you want to worry about someone’s issues you should worry about your own, you have more than me,” he says. The anger seems to melt off his face as he frowns at Bucky. No, at the space _around_ Bucky.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asks.

“You’re marked with death, I can see it,” Tony says in a strangely sober tone, still frowning at the air around Bucky’s figure.

“ _What_?” Bucky asks, more confused than before.

“Death has touched you, but you escaped. I can see it,” Tony tells him. Bucky might have asked what the fuck he was even talking about again but he lets go of the bottle then, spinning around walk walking away faster than Bucky would have given him credit for considering he had to be at least buzzed from that alcohol.

Tony’s words haunt him for the rest of the night- well, _day_ \- because they were so odd. Sure, he’s almost died a few times, but being _marked_ by it? He had no idea what that meant or why Tony wasn’t even looking at _him_ ; he was more focused on the space around him. Distractions were dangerous, he knew, but he couldn’t help but puzzle over Tony’s strange reactions.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here, I'm feeling generous so have another chapter! 
> 
> There's some mentions of underage drinking and some mental health issues but I think that covers it for warnings.

Rhodey looks pissed so Tony glares at the table and waits for the lecture. “God damnit, Tony. You can’t keep doing this shit. First you use compulsion on a _trained guardian_ and then you get busted _day drinking_ by the same guardian. What is _with_ you lately?” Rhodey asks.

“Shouldn’t you know, you’re the one who can read my mind,” he snaps in a tone he barely recognized. Rhodey looks hurt for a moment and Tony feels instantly terrible but there was no use in apologizing when he knew it would happen again. It just happened more now and he didn’t know why…

“Tony,” Rhodey says in a softer tone, “are you alright?” Tony doesn’t need access to his mind to know that Rhodey was worried about him and for a moment he’s glad for it but it doesn’t last long.

 _Why_ did Rhodey insist on butting into Tony’s life like this? Wasn’t it enough that he could _read his fucking mind_ , but now he had to get _more_ information? Why couldn’t he just leave Tony the hell alone? He didn’t need anyone’s help or pity or whatever the hell Rhodey was trying to do with him. After a moment he tries to shake the thoughts but they don’t go, not entirely anyways. They never did.

“I’m fine,” he lies. But it was the best he could do right now. He had no idea what was wrong and he didn’t know if Rhodey would even understand anyways, mind link and all. Putting his thoughts into words was becoming increasingly difficult. Rhodey can tell he’s lying but he leaves it be, probably in the false hopes that Tony would confide in him later.

*

Rhodey is distracted by Tony’s emotions all day but even that doesn’t make him as easy of a target as his classmates. They were all good yes, but they weren’t anywhere near prepared to deal with Strigoi. They all thought they were more than prepared but they had no idea what the hell they were dealing with. He remembered Howard, too well sometimes- he remembered how graceful he was, how _easily_ he tossed Rhodey aside. He would have never been able to do that when he was a Moroi, Rhodey knew for certain because he threatened the man once and he hadn’t had much strength to his struggle. Not compared to Rhodey’s natural Dhampir strength anyways. Tony thought he didn’t know about the abuse but he did and he had been intent on protecting his friend though he never would have assumed the threat was another Moroi at the time.

And then Howard went Strigoi; likely intent on taking his son down with him and Rhodey knew _right away_ what he was. Tony didn’t notice, not until the man was almost right in front of him, but Rhodey knew Howard Stark couldn’t have moved with that kind of grace otherwise from experience and general knowledge of Strigoi. So he had done what he had been trained to do almost since birth: he attacked. It hadn’t gone well for him, Howard tossed him aside easily and he had cracked his head pretty good but thankfully Tony had some weird healing abilities and he avoided the concussion. He did, unfortunately, miss most of the ensuing fight that apparently resulted between _Maria_ and Howard before Peggy showed up and staked his ass.

He would have _loved_ to see Maria Stark light her piece of shit husband on fire even if he had zero idea how she knew how to do that. Maria was a nice woman, and she loved her son more than anything, she deserve better than Howard and Rhodey would have felt strangely vindicated if he had witnessed the woman lighting Howard on fire. Maybe it was because he knew how Howard was with Tony and he’s always been protective over his best friend. Most people saw his snarky attitude and inability to cooperate and thought he ended there- that he was an arrogant bastard. He wasn’t, not really. Tony was just… guarded and he knew how to push people away and draw them in in equal parts. People rarely made it past the walls he put up, he saw to that, but Rhodey had managed. And later Pepper did too.

Plenty of people wondered why he and Pepper liked him before Howard but afterwards Tony had had to save his reputation through consistent use of compulsion. Pepper hadn’t approved of his methods at _all_ but that was unsurprising considering Moroi were taught that using compulsion on people was wrong and a terrible thing to do. Tony never has cared for social rules though and he cared for living in his father’s shadow even less. Rhodey knew better than to say something to him because Tony didn’t listen to pretty much anything unless he was good and ready too. The pitfalls of trying to deal with someone with a ridiculously strong will. Rhodey managed though, sometimes barely, and Tony almost always came around to what Rhodey was saying anyways.

Peggy notices his distraction but Rhodey suspected she knew about the bond he and Tony had. There were stories of guardians having special bonds, psychic bonds, to their Moroi but there was no definitive proof. At least until now- now Rhodey knew all those myths were true. Peggy knew something was up between him and Tony but she had no real proof outside of Rhodey’s off days like today. Rhodey was sure Tony thought there was some kind of misunderstanding about how he felt, which was kind of true- Rhodey has never experienced the swirling darkness he sensed in Tony’s mind- but he could feel that it was there. Tony never talked about the darkness, about how it sometimes clouded his thoughts or at least that’s how Rhodey felt it. Maybe Tony perceived it differently than he did, being able to read Tony’s emotions didn’t necessarily mean knowing how he interpreted everything he felt. Unless he got sucked into Tony’s head, which was never fun.

With the amount of turmoil in Tony’s head Rhodey was surprised that he didn’t get pulled in but he was grateful for it. As much as he loved his best friend he had no desire to live life through his eyes. Once it happened when Rhodey was across the room and he watched himself face plant on the ground. Thankfully the pain pulled him out of Tony’s head, but he was teased about it for weeks and the weird look he got on his face was… well something he intended to keep to himself. Since then he’s learned to try and gauge Tony’s emotions to try and avoid slipping into his head in public lest someone find out about the bond. God even knew what would happen with Tony then and he didn’t need the trouble.

Pepper disapproved of _that_ too, citing several reasons why their instructors should know about the bond and she wasn’t wrong. Some of them were decent safety reasons on Rhodey’s end- slipping into Tony’s head in the middle of a training class could land him seriously hurt- but thankfully Tony was just as stubborn as he was on the subject and Pepper wasn’t an ass. She would never rat them out to anyone even if she gave them _looks_ when she knew something was up. They both ignored her though, even when she was right, because Tony had no desire to tell any of his secrets and Rhodey wasn’t happy with the potential damage it might cause to Tony to have his secrets exposed. He was already fragile; he didn’t need a bunch of people breathing down his neck to make it worse.

“Rhodey,” Peggy calls out after class ends, a slight British accent to her voice.

He turns and walks over to her, “yeah?” he asks.

Peggy frowns at him, “are you alright? You seemed distracted in class,” she says.

He shrugs it off, “just didn’t get much sleep, nothing to worry about,” he lies easily. Peggy doesn’t look totally convinced but she lets him go. The first thing he does is try to find Tony to see if he could sooth his anxiety.

*

Tony disliked the sun on principal but he rarely slept. That was probably all kinds of bad for his health but no one ever noticed that he didn’t sleep more than a couple times a week aside from Rhodey and sometimes Pepper. He kind of resents that the sun made him feel like crap because it was probably warm and pleasant to people who didn’t get start to feel like they were coming down with a nasty case of the flu when they were exposed to it. Rhodey said he liked beaches once but he rarely got to go to them, and even more rarely did he go during the day. Tony felt kind of bad about that, being part of the reason why Rhodey held back on doing things he liked. Logically he knew that Rhodey wouldn’t be able to do the things he liked anyways because Dhampirs were raised to protect Moroi, to give their lives to do so. There was no point that Rhodey would have had his own life _ever_ , but Tony can’t help but continue to feel responsible.

He makes his way through the forest that surrounded the school, headed for small retreat from the sun he built for himself that was far enough away from any guardian outposts and routes that it went unnoticed. He liked to sit there and drink sometimes, or whatever else he felt like doing. Sometimes that was homework but he was usually ahead in all his classes thanks to his genius. It wasn’t difficult to get ahead in work that was so absolutely _boring_ to him. Most of his free time was spent fiddling with various technologies from the human world. Some things made their way to the vampire world too, like cars and electricity, but there were certain things that didn’t. Like cell phones for example, guardians had them but only for communication purposes though that might be for the best.

Human phones had cameras on them and the last thing they all needed was some twat posting a video of vampires to the Internet and having a bunch of humans lose their shit. Well… Tony supposed there were some humans that knew about them already after that attack over in California… Humans working with Strigoi was unprecedented so that particular attack, especially at some Royal gathering, sent shock waves through the Moroi community. Things were less tense how that a few months have passed with no news of those Strigoi or the humans working with them but there were plenty of people who were still on edge. That said Tony still totally wanted a cell phone instead of his god damn bond with only Rhodey that only worked one way. He’s gotten his hands on human tech, it was _cool_ and he had _ideas_. He’d write them down but given that vampires didn’t use tech the same way humans did it was somewhat useless.

He considers way to integrate technology into the vampire world as he walked through the forest, especially in regards to feeders. He’d rather not bite people because they got addicted to the bites and also biting people was weird even if it was also sort of in his nature as a vampire. The forest was quiet as he made his way through it and he switches his thoughts from feeders back to phones. He ponders how he might engineer a way for Moroi to have access to the Internet and cell phones and such without humans stumbling across them when he noticed someone standing by his small fort. He would have turned around and walked away if the damn guardian hadn’t already turned and seen him. Bucky. Of _course_ Tony thinks to himself. Obviously it _had_ to be him instead of literally any other guardian.

Bucky frowns at him, “Tony? What are you doing out during the day?” he asks, _again_ hanging heavy in the air between them.

“I like the sunlight,” he lies, nose in the air.

Bucky snorts, “sure you do,” he says sarcastically.

“You don’t know anything about me,” Tony snaps back. True, but it was a bit of an overreaction on his part. That was… well nothing new even if he figured he should be worried about his mood swings.

“No,” Bucky says after pondering his response for a moment, “but I _do_ know that no Moroi could possibly enjoy the sunlight for biological ‘I-feel-like-I’m-going-to-throw-up’ reasons. So what draws you out here?” he asks. The question implies that this isn’t just a couple of one off incidents and given that Tony happened across him looking over his small structure looking confused Tony couldn’t blame him for the conclusion he drew.

“Told you, I like the sun,” he says, stomping over to his structure boldly, moving around Bucky and sitting under the branches. It had taken forever to find a way to keep the damn branches up in a way that didn’t cave in on him- sometimes literally- in the weather. It was also purposefully built away from the usual guardian patrol areas to avoid detection but apparently Bucky didn’t give a shit about his usual route. He was proud of his little twig house and he was annoyed that Bucky found the damn thing.

Bucky examines him for a long moment, clearly trying to figure out how to proceed. Tony stares back at him, all but defiantly telling him to go tell his guardian friends about this. Finally Bucky sighs, “how many times a week do you sleep?” he asks, throwing Tony for a loop for a moment.

“Enough,” he says evasively.

“Tony,” Bucky says, his tone soft and caring and… and Tony could feel something in his chest twang and _damnit_ why did he have to be like this right now?

“Couple times, sometimes more if I’m really exhausted,” he admits quietly, looking at the ground.

Bucky swears under his breath, “I take it no one knows about this?” Bucky asks. Tony shakes his head, still looking away. Well, Rhodey did but he didn’t know just how bad it was because Tony did his best to keep it from him. Being able to read his moods was invasive enough; he didn’t need to disrupt Rhodey’s life more even if he knew Rhodey would insist it was fine. But he’s a guardian in training; it’s what they’re supposed to do. “How often do you drink?” Bucky asks after a few moments of silence.

“None of your business,” Tony mumbles with no real fire behind the statement even though he wanted it to be there. “Just keep this to yourself,” he tells Bucky, glaring up at him.

To his surprise Bucky was clearly considering it. Bucky sighs after a few long moments, “alright, but I’m keeping an eye on you,” he says.

Tony works to keep his mouth shut because _what_? “Seriously?” he asks, shocked.

“I… have experience in dealing with stubborn Moroi who dislike doctors. You won’t do anything I tell you to and forcing you to do what I want will only ensure that you find better ways to avoid me and everyone else who might notice your behavior. You’ve done a sufficient job of avoiding Rhodey and I _swear_ that kid can read your mind. So no, I’m not going to say anything. For now,” he adds.

He looks away because Bucky’s comment about Rhodey reading his mind was maybe a little too close to home. So he suspected something too, not just Peggy. Well, shit.

*

Bucky keeps tabs on Tony easily, used to watching everything and nothing at the same time came in handy when you wanted to keep an eye on a high risk teen without him or his best friend noticing what you were doing. Rhodey, if he was looking, would have recognized his techniques from his classes but he was more concerned with Tony and for good reason. During the course of two weeks he spent watching Tony he found him to be an emotional roller coaster and even Tony knew it. Rhodey handled him well, and so did his other close friend Pepper but most others seemed to avoid Tony unless he outright spoke to them.

And when Tony was social he was _social_. If it wasn’t Pepper or Rhodey he was talking to he had a habit of drawing a crowd and at least in those moments people _loved_ him. Tony flipped from being antisocial and generally pissed off to outgoing, happy, and sociable and it made no sense. Talking to Peggy- keeping his questions subtle of course- he learned that this was normal for him, hence why no one seemed to find this worrying. Bucky had no idea why no one paid attention to the odd behavior anyways, people didn’t generally flip between very antisocial to very social with no rhyme or reason but he supposed people got used to people being a certain way and expected them to continue acting that way.

By week three he figured out _how_ Tony managed to keep people off his back in regards to his odd behavior and for a few days he had no idea what to do with that knowledge. “You can use compulsion on Dhampirs. And Moroi,” Bucky tells Tony the next time he sees him.

Tony looks surprised and then annoyed, “what’s it to you?” he snaps, apparently in one of his moods today.

“Moroi can’t use compulsion on other Moroi _or_ on Dhampirs so how can you?” he asks, frowning. The best they could do, usually, was muddle another person’s mind a little and that’s if they were good.

“Don’t know, I’ve always been able to do that,” Tony mumbles.

“You use it a lot,” Bucky points out. “Must be exhausting.” Steve used to use a little bit of compulsion sometimes, mostly to get Bucky out of trouble back when they were in school, and it always weakened him. But that didn’t fit Tony, not with the extreme insomnia. What the hell was going _on_ with him?

“Sometimes,” Tony admits.

They remain silent for a long time while Bucky contemplates how Tony was able to handle so much sunlight on a regular basis. Even being in the shade exhausted Moroi- unless… “Do you come out during the day to try and tire yourself out?” he asks after some time of silence.

Tony’s head snaps up, shocked. “How did you know that?” he asks, eyes wide. Clearly he wasn’t used to people figuring out what was going on in his head.

“Sunlight exhausts Moroi when they’re in it and you have severe insomnia. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together,” he says, shrugging.

“I’d give yourself more credit than that, you’re the first to have ever figured that out,” he says. The first implied that at least one other person knew about his lack of sleep and Bucky would guess Rhodey and maybe even Pepper. Rhodey was more in tune with Tony than Pepper was though, so much so that Bucky was genuinely wondering if he actually _could_ read Tony’s mind somehow.

They lapse back into silence for some time before Bucky speaks up again, wanting to know what was going on before he went back to his neglected guardian duties. “What did you mean, the first time I found you out here, when you told me I was marked by death?” he asks.

Tony looks confused, “what?” he asks. The reaction is genuine, he can tell. You got good at reading people when you had to decide in two seconds or less if they’re a threat.

“When I took your alcohol you told me I was marked by death, that I barely escaped it,” Bucky says, “what did you mean by that?”

Tony’s brows draw together as he considers this for a long moment, “I… I don’t remember that. Maybe I was more drunk than I thought…”

“You were looking at the air around me,” Bucky says, trying to jog his memory, “why?”

He can tell that this triggers something for Tony but he just shakes his head, “I don’t remember that,” he repeats.

Bucky believes that- Tony genuinely seemed confused about Bucky’s question about being marked by death, but he definitely knew why he was looking at the air around Bucky instead of looking _at_ Bucky. And he was going to figure out what was going on.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still feeling generous so here ya go! Also note that Tony/ Loki has been added- this is not something that will last, Bucky/Tony is endgame, but this relationship does feature in this fic so the tag is warranted.
> 
> Theres some mentions of violence in here too but it doesn't go into too much detail.

Tony didn’t know why Bucky had such a bug up his ass when it came to him but he was at least hot so when he kept his mouth shut he could appreciate the guy’s presence. He was tall, muscular, a little tanned from his time in the sun. What wasn’t to enjoy? Even the long hair looked nice on him though he still wanted to know how he managed to get it into a perfect bun with only a few artfully stray hairs around his face with only one arm. His hair up also showed off an impressive amount of _molnija_ marks he had, and a two of those little star like markings that meant he’d been in battle and killed too many Strigoi to count. To have that many marks he had to be impressive, especially when he was so young but Tony’s interest in Bucky’s skill was less related to his ability to kill things.

But since Bucky had taken an interest in Tony he took an interest in Bucky right back. He had done a little research, learning that his last charge Steve Rogers had been killed in that Strigoi attack a few months ago. According to the reports Tony managed to dig up the guardians had been drugged- presumably by the catered drinks though the Moroi weren’t drugged at all, which led to some speculation as to how only the guardians managed to ingest the drugs. Simple, in Tony’s opinion- the Moroi probably stuck to a blood only drinking diet at that point in the occasion. Had the Strigoi waited a half hour the Moroi probably would have been out of it too.

The wards had also been broken around the property, which was what indicated human involvement. Strigoi couldn’t pass the elemental wards Moroi could cast around their properties, nor could they touch the charmed stakes that could break the wards. Humans would have had to do it and evidence suggested the stakes had been there for awhile, like the wards were broken during the day. Strigoi couldn’t go out during the day so humans it was. Granted it could have been Dhampirs too but Tony didn’t think anyone considered that and the evidence would sooner suggest humans than Dhampirs, who were raised to loath Strigoi. There had been some speculation on how the guardians didn’t notice the broken wards but someone had suggested that they were broken closer to the end of the day after the guardians would have checked the wards. Strigoi still couldn’t have broken the wards so the reports led back to human involvement.

Regardless of being drugged by the punch Bucky had done fairly well, killing off something like five Strigoi before he had been dispatched himself. The Strigoi had caught him when he stumbled across Steve’s dead body- they had been separated in the commotion and Bucky’s focus had been hazy due to the drugs- and when the Strigoi caught up with him, well. They probably figured ripping his arm clean off his body would have killed him but Bucky was a lucky bastard. When the reinforcements showed up some time later, confused as to why the guardians at the party hadn’t responded for awhile they found Bucky mostly dead at the scene.

Several of the Moroi had been gone or disfigured beyond recognition and the guardians hadn’t faired much better than Bucky. He was missing an arm, had one hell of a hangover, and some other minor injuries and he had been one of the lucky ones. None of the Strigoi had even tried to make a meal out of him and his colleagues hadn’t been so lucky. It had been odd but Bucky had reported being conscious for most of the attack and he had obviously lost a lot of blood due to the whole having his arm ripped off thing so the guardians figured the Strigoi were full and had Moroi snacks for later so they didn’t bother with a mostly dry for blood Bucky. Strigoi preferred Moroi blood to Dhampir blood and Bucky staying alive for so long saved him from becoming a snack. Tony figured that was pretty logical, if he were a Strigoi he’d leave Bucky behind too.

Reports of Bucky disappeared for a couple months after that but he reappeared on the scene shortly before coming to the Academy. No one expected him to return to duty with one arm, plenty of people thought a perfectly good guardian was wasted due to his new disability but Bucky was nothing if not determined. Shortly before being contacted by the school he had been at some event and noticed a Strigoi in the bushes and staked it, one arm and all. People were back to buzzing about him being the best after that, even if it had a note of offensive language attached to it. He was now amazing _because_ he only had one arm, not because he had an incredible amount of skill. Not that it was that surprising to Tony that people didn’t just ignore the arm thing to look at the facts. Bucky was good before, it stood to reason that if he was determined enough to work with the way his body was now he’d get at least some of that talent back.

Judging from the way he tossed the novices around in class he didn’t lose much, if any, of his previous talent. It was almost amusing to watch the novices assume that Bucky’s lack of an arm was a weakness, at least until it got flat out annoying. “Oh for fucks sakes, would you all stop going for his left side?” Tony snaps one day when he gets particularly annoyed with their attempting to attack from that side _only_.

“Shut up Stark, you don’t even know what you’re talking about,” Justin Hammer snaps at him.

“Well clearly neither do you, you keep going for his left side exactly like every single one of you minus Rhodey has for the last fucking _month_. That isn’t even his weak side,” Tony tells him and the rest of the class. Both Rhodey and Peggy look impressed with this assessment but the rest of the novices look annoyed.

“The fuck are you talking about, in case you haven’t noticed he had an entire _arm_ missing on his left side,” one of the other novices, Fuckwit McGee Tony was going to call him now, says.

“Language,” Peggy tells them lightly. She didn’t really care, Tony knew, given that she didn’t tell them to cut it out from the beginning.

“Yeah, we all _know_ he had an entire arm missing there but you guys have all been going for that side from day one. Even if that didn’t make your moves extremely predictable he used to be left handed. You’re all going for his dominant side when he isn’t nearly as good with his right hand as he was with his left, when it was still you know, attached,” he says, shrugging.

Bucky starts laughing, doubling over after a couple minutes and continuing on for so long that everyone in the room minus Peggy and Tony were uncomfortable. “You guys really, _really_ need to step up your game if a _Moroi_ student noticed that before the rest of you. He has _no_ background in self defense, all he’s done is sit in on a few classes and _he_ managed to figure out that I used to be left handed, making attacking me from the right much easier for you. By now I’m so used to handling attacks from my left that I’m fully confident I’d be able to handle Strigoi going for that side with almost no issues thanks to how damn predictable you’ve all been. Thank you Tony for being the only one in this class, apparently, to look past the obvious to see what was underneath. Care to explain to the class how you noticed this?” he asks.

“Your writing is way messier than it used to be,” Tony says without thinking. Bucky and Peggy frown at him, clearly confused. “I uh… dug up some guardian records I definitely shouldn’t have been able to get into?” he says, the statement coming out more like a question than a statement. “Anyways I was surprised at that given that most people are right handed so I started paying attention to the way you move. It’s obvious to me that standing the way you do when you anticipate attacks, with your right ahead of your left, isn’t entirely second nature to you. You’re good of course, but I can see that you have to think about it. Peggy never has to think about her stances. Hence you were left handed before your arm took a one way trip to Byebyeville,” Tony tells them, shrugging and hoping that they all forgot about that swiping guardian records thing.

Peggy does not forget about that unfortunately, but she does tell him that he was a better student than all of her students before telling Bucky to take him to the principal. Tony was annoyed but at least Rhodey got some minor praise from Peggy for either noticing what Tony did or being smart enough to try and disable Bucky’s only other arm, which would make him far easier to handle in a fight. Tony wasn’t looking forward to Fury and his one-eyed glory because he kind of hated Tony but whatever. He _did_ technically break some major rules so he guessed he deserved this.

“I’m impressed,” Bucky tells him as they walk out of the gym.

Tony shrugs, “once I knew what to look for it was easy,” he says honestly.

“You outsmarted a class of novices who have been at this for years, give yourself some credit Tony. That was more than a little impressive, rule breaking aside,” Bucky tells him, looking down at Tony with a fond look. There was a bit of respect there that hadn’t been there before and Tony decides to take it.

“So if I told you to let this go…” he starts and Bucky laughs.

“No can do, Tony. Peggy is a witness and besides, this is just good old fashioned breaking the rules. _This_ I can handle without fanciness and all of that,” he says.

Tony grumbles but accepts his fate, making no less than twelve jokes about Fury and Bucky bonding over their missing body parts. Bucky pauses outside of the building and Tony pauses with him, hoping he reconsidered Tony’s offer to forget about this whole stealing guardian records thing. Rhodey was going to beat his ass later for doing that but probably only because he hadn’t invited him along. But he hadn’t wanted Rhodey to get in trouble too.

“You know you’re the only one who ever mentions the arm? Even Peggy avoids the subject. Why is that?” Bucky asks, head tilted to the side. He doesn’t look offended or anything like that so that was good, Tony didn’t set out to insult the guy or anything like that.

He shrugs, “everyone has been working really hard at not treating you differently because of the arm, but never mentioning it _is_ treating you differently. They’d never go so far out of their way to avoid talking about you having two arms so why go out of the way to not talk about you only having one? You know you have one arm, everyone _else_ knows you only have one arm, no sense in pussyfooting around it,” he points out.

Bucky smiles at him, showing off a really nice set of white teeth that he had no right to have considering how often he probably got punched in the face. “Well I appreciate that you do it. Everyone else is too scared of offending me but refusing to talk about it is actually worse than not doing that because I _know_ they’re doing it. I’d rather they follow your lead and point out the obvious. I know I have a disability, no sense in pretending I’m the same as I was. Now get your butt through the door, I want to see Fury glare you down with his good eye and if I’m _really_ lucky he’ll whip out his bad eye and glare at you with that too,” Bucky says.

Tony throws his head back and laughs, half hoping that Fury got the bad eye out due to sheer curiosity.

*

Pepper looks _so_ unimpressed but Tony wasn’t too concerned, it was Rhodey he was more concerned about. “Can we _not_ tell him I got a weeks worth of in school suspensions?” he asks her, batting his eyelashes at her. He could have used compulsion to get what he wanted right away but he would never use that on her against her will. He only used it on people he didn’t like or people that liked to compare him to his father, not friends. He’d been tempted to use it on Fury but something told him the suspicious man would be rather resistant to it and he didn’t want to press his luck.

Pepper looks past him and smiles pleasantly, “hello Rhodey, Tony got a weeks worth of in school suspensions for stealing guardian records,” Pepper tells him right away.

“Traitor,” Tony hisses at her. Pepper just gives him a pleasant smile and he slumps in his seat as Rhodey glares at him.

“What were you _thinking_ Tony?” he asks. He was thinking that he wanted dirt on the dude who knew just a little too much was what he was thinking but he couldn’t tell Rhodey that he was out during the day again, he’d get all protective and stuff. Then Tony would be forced to tell him other stuff that he wasn’t comfortable with and _then_ he’d be offended if he found out Bucky knew first.

“All the novices are _still_ on about how he’s a god and all that, I figured I’d look up his record myself,” Tony lies easily. Rhodey falls for it without question because Tony was naturally a curious little bastard and this wasn’t the first time he’s gotten ahold of school records due to that curiosity.

“God damnit Tony, could you _not_?” Rhodey asks.

“I could but where’s the fun in that?” he asks flippantly. “Also what’s going on over there?” he asks, nodding towards the door to the dorm where it looked like some amount of commotion was happening. If there was a fight happening he was _so_ here for that. Moroi never fought and it was funny to watch them slap at each other uselessly while the Dhampirs shouted fighting techniques at the Moroi they wanted to win. They always got so annoyed when the Moroi didn’t do it right too, which never ceased to amuse Tony.

Rhodey looked ready to tell Tony not to change the subject or something similar but Pepper was looking too and she also looked confused. Rhodey turns to see the commotion and sighs, getting up to see what was going on, glaring at Tony to get him to stay when he tries to go with him. He was totally going to miss the fight because Rhodey would definitely white knight the situation and break it up, which, _boo_.

But when Rhodey gets there his back suddenly goes ramrod straight and Tony frowns, leaning forward in a new kind of interest. “Something bad has happened,” Pepper says in a soft tone, voicing Tony’s thoughts exactly.

When Rhodey comes back he looks unnaturally pale compared to the usual rich brown of his skin and he sits down, looking like he needed the rest. “There’s been another attack,” he says quietly, “nine dead, five of them were guardians.”

Well _shit_.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a pretty long chapter!
> 
> Warning for some mentions of violence, but nothing worse than canon.

The evidence suggested human involvement but that was about as much as Tony could get as a student. He was tempted to steal some guardian records again but Fury would eat his ass so he doesn’t. Instead he sneaks out of his dorm, something that was easy to do in the daylight given that no one would expect a Moroi to go wandering in the sun, to hopefully go find Bucky. Tony figured he could probably sweet talk the guardian into talking and worst come to worst if things were _really_ good and he wasn’t talking he could always use compulsion. Rhodey would beat his ass for it but he wanted information more than Tony did and the one thing they had was from Peggy slipping him private information. Pepper hadn’t been able to gather anything either, but she wasn’t Royal so that was hardly surprising.

If she had been, or if people weren’t so suspicious of Tony these days, then they probably would have had information faster but Tony didn’t feel like socializing to get murder details. At least not yet. “I’m starting to wonder if you’re following me around,” someone says from behind him and Tony jumps, head spinning just a bit as he turned too fast. Fucking sun, why couldn’t he enjoy daylight? It would make the insomnia much easier. And the sunlight didn’t even tire him out like he wanted it to.

“Given that you seem to stumble upon me more than the opposite I think _you’re_ the stalker,” Tony says, grinning and leaning against a tree. Ugh, the affects of the sun were kicking in faster than usual today. _Lovely_.

“You should probably not wander around in the sun,” Bucky tells him, clearly looking him over for any adverse affects. Tony didn’t need to see his face to know he was more pale than usual but he was also standing in a sunny spot so he moves to a shadier area and leans against a tree there.

“Better? Besides, these days daylight is safer than nighttime anyways. Maybe we should switch to a diurnal schedule,” he says.

Bucky catches on to his ruse right away and sighs, “well you’re the most creative, I’ll give you that. Most of your classmates just asked for all the details. But daylight isn’t safe either; you just won’t see Strigoi walking around. Doesn’t mean you won’t run into any guardians or Moroi that will give you trouble,” Bucky says.

Tony raises an eyebrow, “guardians or Moroi that’ll give you trouble? Is this a hint?” he asks, smiling again.

Bucky looks suddenly tired and he rubs his temples, “no, that’s just from personal experience with a guy who _really_ knew how to piss off a crowd. You’ll like Rhodey’s class Monday if you show up to that instead of that elemental class you’re _supposed_ to be in,” Bucky tells him.

Hmm. Tony wasn’t entirely sure if Bucky was telling the truth or not but he leaves it be. “No sense in going to the elemental class, I haven’t specialized anyways. There’s nothing there for me to learn.” He could work magic fine, but it seemed he had no connection to an element and that was unheard of. Well, there were people who didn’t specialize but they had low control over all four elements, he had something else entirely. There were no elements that allowed a person to bring the dead back to life, to see auras, or use compulsion in ridiculously high amounts. Tony suspected he had other abilities but he didn’t know what he was supposed to research to find out what those abilities _were_.

His words seem to spark something in Bucky though and he watches as Bucky considers his options. “I’ll make you a deal, you give me something that I want I’ll give you something that you want. How does that sound?” Bucky asks.

Dangerous, but Tony has always been a risk taker. “Why not?” he says with a grin. Besides, he’s a student, what could he have that Bucky would want?

Bucky looks like he just won something, which should have been Tony’s first clue that he screwed up but he was too caught up in getting the information that he wanted to care. “The other day, when I asked you about being marked for death you didn’t know what I was talking about but you _did_ react to me asking about you looking at the air around me. What was that?” he asks.

Aw shit. He thinks about it for a moment and he can tell that Bucky was pleased with himself but… but he hasn’t said anything about Tony’s habits so far. Maybe he wouldn’t say anything about this either… “I um… have… _abilities_ but they aren’t connected to an element. What I was looking at was your aura.”

This confuses Bucky, understandably, “all Moroi magic is connected to an element,” he says.

“I haven’t specialized,” Tony says, “so it _can’t_ be connected to an element. And I’ve done my research, there isn’t anything to suggest one of the four elements would give me the ability to see auras.” Or heal dead things back to life. That in particular was some serious magic. Not that he’d tell Bucky about that because he already knew too much and Rhodey was going to kick his ass as it was.

“And use compulsion they way you do,” Bucky adds. Shit, Tony forgot that he knew about that.

“Well I mean some Moroi are good at that,” Tony mumbles, knowing the excuse was ridiculous because _no they couldn’t_. Moroi could use compulsion on _humans_ , not other Moroi and Dhampirs. When they tried the attempts were usually embarrassing and futile and not at all like the kind of compulsion Tony could work.

“Not like you. I’ve seen you use it in teachers who should be resilient if for no other reason than at least one student trying to use compulsion to get out of handing in homework every class let alone age, experience, and natural resilience. When did you figure out you could do that?” Bucky asks, head tilted to the side.

When Howard was about to kick his ass one time but he wasn’t going to tell Bucky that he managed to talk him down and have him turn away. He thought it was a fluke, that it worked because Howard was drunk at the time. But when he tried it again when Howard was sober it worked just as well. “I tried to get out of handing in homework. It worked,” Tony lies flippantly. It was believable but Bucky snorts and shakes his head.

“No, you didn’t. You’re a great student; I know that because I hear people talk about you. It’s always something along the lines of how brilliant you are quickly followed by their annoyance that you’re intent of throwing that all away by acting the way you do. Except I’m not totally sure all of that is stuff you’re _intending_ to do,” Bucky says, frowning at him.

Tony laughs, “oh I intend for all of it to happen,” he says in a confident tone. No, he didn’t, but sometimes he just couldn’t stop the moods from taking over and it was hard to stop himself from saying things he shouldn’t. Somewhere in there he knew he shouldn’t be such an asshole but stuff just _happened_ and he couldn’t fix something once it was out. Then he had to just roll with it so now he had a reputation as an arrogant asshole that he wasn’t entirely comfortable with but he didn’t have much of a choice but to keep.

Bucky examines him for a few seconds, “no, you don’t. There’s too much about you that suggests it isn’t purposeful,” he says.

“Wishful thinking,” Tony quips lightly, “usually I only get that from my dates but hey, I’ll take it.” Teachers lost hope in him ages ago and probably only put up with him at all because he was genuinely brilliant. That, and Rhodey would probably leave the school like an idiot if they kicked Tony out and they needed their star Dhampir.

“More like experience with people who aren’t what they seem. Speaking of- what’s with Peggy giving you so much leeway? She doesn’t let student skip class let alone skip class to go to _her_ class,” he says.

Tony shrugs, “guess that’s what happens when she feels bad for killing your father right in front of you. You can tell her that she shouldn’t fell so bad, that was the best day of my life,” he says. Bucky, he can tell, believes what his words because he looks shocked at Tony’s admission. Most did but they all should have paid attention to how much he hated his father before it was trendy. It wouldn’t have come as a surprise for anyone who was paying attention.

*

Rhodey gives Tony a _look_ , “you told him _what_?” he hisses. He looks like he _really_ wants to smack Tony but he’s but a sensitive Moroi so he doesn’t. Pepper just lets out a long sigh because she expected nothing less from Tony. Unlike Rhodey she didn’t really expect him to do better than what he’s shown himself capable and honestly Tony wasn’t sure what was worse. Rhodey having high expectations for him only to fail those expectations consistently or have a track record so bad Pepper gave up on holding him to standards.

“Did you want the info or not?” he asks defensively.

“Of course I did, but not if it was going to put you in danger!” Rhodey snaps.

“He told Barnes that he saw auras, that’s hardly selling his soul to the guy,” Pepper points out. Bless her for being the voice of reason. It was useful seems how Tony’s stupid mind couldn’t keep his guilt in his own damn brain, it had to off and broadcast it to Rhodey too. If he had managed to keep it to himself then Rhodey wouldn’t have gleaned _how_ Tony got his information and he would have gotten away with his brilliant plan.

“So what if it isn’t, you have no idea what he’ll do with that information!” Rhodey tells her. Tony does his best to try and keep the rest of the guilt he was feeling to himself too… “Why do you feel guilty still? And why are you trying not to think about it?” Rhodey asks him. Pepper leans forward in interest, smiling pleasantly because she found these encounters amusing. Traitor.

He just needed to keep those few times he ran into Bucky all weird to himself, and all those conversations and…

“ _Tony_! Stop talking to him!” Rhodey says and Tony makes an annoyed noise.

“Can’t you stay out of my damn head for once?” he snaps. He could feel the edges of one of those dark moods coming on but he tries to keep it away. He didn’t need this right now, or ever really but he wasn’t stupid enough to believe that those moods would disappear anytime soon. They’ve only gotten worse since Howard off and ruined his life and brought shame on his entire family. Before that people actually _liked_ Starks and now they were all potential Strigoi because he had to off and kill someone while drinking their blood. Selfish fucker.

“What did you find out though, about the attack?” Pepper asks, distracting both him and Rhodey efficiently enough. Rhodey doesn’t look ready to let this go but he does look at Tony expectantly, waiting to see what he had to say.

Rhodey wasn’t going to like this, Tony knew, because Bucky was an asshole that totally played Tony for information but he at least got a few good details. “Well I didn’t find out much more to be honest,” he says, glaring right back at Rhodey when Rhodey glares at him, “but there were more Strigoi this time. And they suspect that some of those guardians were backup because a couple of the Moroi killed weren’t Royals and didn’t have guardians. So the Strigoi would have had to stick around to take them out purposefully. And there was a message there,” he says. “Oh, and broken wards,” he adds.

Pepper and Rhodey consider this information and Rhodey eventually sighs, “what did the message say?” he asks. Tony shrugs, Bucky hadn’t told him. “You didn’t ask?” Rhodey asks, looking offended at this.

“Of course I asked, I just didn’t get an answer,” Tony says, offended that Rhodey would be offended at his sleuthing skills. Excuse him; _he_ was the one who had got suspended for a week because he went and dug up Bucky’s guardian record. _Clearly_ he was a sleuthing genius.

“Something about Royal families maybe?” Rhodey asks and Tony shrugs again. Bucky hadn’t given anything away.

“I hope so, that’ll mean I’m safe,” Pepper says, drawing a horrified look from Rhodey and Tony. “What? You Royals always get guardians; _I’m_ the one who’s left defenseless, sue me if I hope that the targets are the ones who have a fighting chance thanks to their guardians.”

“I probably won’t get one,” Tony points out, “maybe the Strigoi will think I’ve gone Strigoi too and they’ll leave me alone.”

Rhodey looks upset for a moment at Tony’s words, “of _course_ you’ll get a guardian, _I’m_ your guardian.”

“No,” Pepper says, “you aren’t. Not after Howard’s Strigoi stunt made the Stark family fall out of favor. Maria isn’t the only Stark without a guardian and you’re _good_. There’s no way they’re going to waste you on Tony. No offense,” she adds to Tony.

Tony shrugs, not at all bothered. The statement was true, that wasn’t her fault.

“The hell that’ll happen! I won’t accept any other assignment,” Rhodey says in a determined tone.

“Then you’re an idiot, why would you waste time on Stark anyways? You’re only going to have to stake him when he goes Strigoi,” Justin Hammer says, sneering at Tony as he interrupts their conversation like a jackass.

“Keep it up and you’ll be the one I drip dry, asshole,” Tony shoots back without missing a beat. Pepper and Rhodey burst out laughing and Hammer pales a little, obviously taking the threat seriously.

“You’d never do it but if you did, I’d appreciate you going evil by doing the world a favor and killing Hammer off,” Rhodey says, snickering. Hammer looks deeply offended that Rhodey would say this but Tony also felt it would be a public service to kill Hammer off.

“Don’t be absurd, he doesn’t need to go Strigoi to kill him and it’s a public service all the same,” Pepper says.

“Good point Pep, I could just stab him in the neck,” Tony says lightly.

“Who are you stabbing in the neck?” Bucky asks, appearing somewhat suddenly to Tony and Pepper but Rhodey doesn’t look surprised so he figured Rhodey’s super guardian senses and all that helped him spot Bucky before he scared them all.

“He threated to kill me to turn Strigoi!” Hammer blurts, ratting Tony out right away.

Bucky opens his mouth to respond and then shuts it, clearly thinking better of whatever he was about to say. “Tony, I’d rather you didn’t,” he says, “also I’ve been instructed to make sure you get back to your dorm because you’ve been slipping detention.”

“He’s probably stalking me and waiting for his moment to kill me and turn Strigoi!” Hammer says.

Rhodey rolls his eyes, “if Tony, who is six and a half inches and fifty pounds lighter than you with no combat training whatsoever manages to get the jump on you and kill you without you managing to throw him off and keep him down you deserve to die,” he says in a flat, annoyed tone. Bucky coughs, which Tony _knows_ is him covering his amusement because he can see the proper colors swirling in his aura.

“You wish I spent that much time looking in your direction, Hammer,” Tony tells him, nose in the air.

“Yeah, yeah, Tony’s using his father going Strigoi to scare you off, I wouldn’t fall for it. Especially because Rhodey is right, he’d probably pick an easier target. Now get up so I can drop you off at your dorm,” Bucky tells Tony, hand on his hips. Tony grumbles a little but picks himself up so he can go.

*

Bucky watches Tony, trying to determine if he could even imagine him as Strigoi. He couldn’t but that was likely due to his unshakable faith that no one decent would _ever_ turn Strigoi by choice and Tony, while a bit odd, was a good person. “I wouldn’t actually go Strigoi, I just don’t like Hammer,” he says.

“Figured. Why though? Hammer, why don’t you like him?” Bucky adds when he realizes his question is a bit vague.

“He made a racist comment to Rhodey once. And he stole my crackers in kindergarten,” Tony says. It takes a few seconds for Bucky to realize the second bit of that was serious and then he starts laughing. “What?” Tony asks, looking affronted, “racism isn’t funny!”

“Of course it isn’t, but you hate the guy because he stole you’re _crackers_?” he asks.

“They were Ritz! I _love_ Ritz crackers!” Tony says in his own defense.

Bucky shakes his head, still smiling. “You are something else, you know that?”

“That’s what they tell me,” Tony quips in that trademark snarky tone of his. They walk in silence for a bit- the Mori dorm was a little out of the way from the cafeteria due to the feeder building being in between the cafeteria and the dorm. Feeders were humans that gave their blood willingly to Moroi, addicted to their bites thanks to the endorphins in it.

“Are you alright?” Bucky asks when they get to the dorm.

Tony looks caught off guard by the question but he recovers quickly, “of course I am. What makes you think I’m not?” he asks, apparently deciding to ignore every habit he had.

“Well gee, I don’t know, could be the day drinking, the amount of time you insist on spending in the sunlight despite feeling sick when you’re in it, the weird way your moods seem to work, your odd friendship with Rhodey, your ability to work strange magic despite having no connection to an element, I could go on. Do you want me to or are you prepared to be honest now?” Steve had prepared him to deal with this kind of stubbornness, but not anything else Tony came with not that Bucky was unwilling to figure things out anyways. Something about Tony drew him in, maybe because he was reminded of Steve thanks to his stubbornness and general attitude, or maybe it was something else. Who knew?

Tony sighs, “look, I have no idea okay? Sometimes I’m fine and things are going well and then everything changes and it’s like… like…” he trails off, not sure how to word it.

“Like a black cloud following you everywhere metaphorically raining on you and no matter how hard you try it always seems to eclipse the sun,” Bucky says, familiar with the feeling.

“Yeah, and people just don’t get it. They think I should be able to pull myself out of it or something and that’s just now how it works. I can’t make the darkness get out of my brain,” Tony murmurs, looking off into the distance with a haunted expression on his face.

Bucky knew that look too, sort of. He’s spent a fair amount of time with it on his face and he knew lots of Dhampirs who were damaged by their jobs enough to look haunted like that too. “People have a hard time understanding things they’ve never been through,” Bucky tells him, “but you’ll get through whatever is happening. You’re tough.” He could see that strength in a lot of things Tony did, but sitting in class with the woman who killed your father? That was a kind of strength Bucky didn’t know anyone had. He had debated a few times on relaying Tony’s statement about his father’s death being the best thing that ever happened to him to Peggy but he had decided against it. He’d have to explain how he knew that and then all the other things about Tony he wasn’t reporting when he should.

But unlike most Bucky had experience in this area and he damn well knew that someone in Tony’s situation wasn’t going to do anything about it until they were good and ready, and they’d only manage to skirt around anyone’s efforts to help them before that time. He spent a lot of his own youth day drinking and acting strange, minus the magic, and when Steve had done his best to force him into changing his behavior he just got good at hiding it. Steve should have known better given that he couldn’t be forced to do anything he didn’t want to as well.

“I’m not so sure about that,” Tony says softly.

*

“Strigoi sightings have gone up drastically,” Peggy says, pinching her nose.

“This attack could have drawn others out of the woodwork, you know these things tend to do that. It’s too early to draw conclusions,” Bucky says.

“That’s what the guardians who reported on the scene of the _last_ mass murder said. I figured you of all people would know better,” someone else, a blond female guardian with her hair in a harsh blonde bun, says. Something about her looks vaguely familiar but Bucky can’t put his finger on it.

“I’m not saying mass murders aren’t a pattern- I’d say it’s safe to assume that these attacks aren’t completely unrelated. But the sightings, those are trickier.” Sometimes Strigoi got emboldened when one of their own got away with something they shouldn’t have and they all tried to kill a few Moroi for themselves. It didn’t usually work out well and the reports were showing that pattern hadn’t broken at least, and the sightings didn’t come with any other unusual aspects like the two mass murders had. There were no broken wards, no humans, and no signs of activity during the day.

“He’s right, Sharon,” Peggy tells the blonde when she goes to open her mouth to protest. She shuts her mouth and looks away as people so often did when Peggy disagreed with them. Bucky, if he was lucky, would get half of the respect Peggy would by the time he was her age. “Now I think we should keep an eye on the possible situations that could arise out of the rise of Strigoi sightings. Advise anyone that reports them to give you as much detail as possible so we can determine with more certainty whether or not these sightings are unusual,” Peggy tells them all.

They all make notes minus Bucky, who had a hard time writing with only one arm not that it mattered. He was with Peggy most of the time, or some other guardian, so someone else could record the details. “Now onto a somewhat more pressing matter. What are we going to do about the uh… _note_ left behind at the last scene? And was there anything at the first scene?”

She had set a few people to read the reports, and Bucky’s testimony, from that day but the guardians reported no messages left behind. A little digging revealed that this latest attack was more organized too though having done this before that might not be overly important. Experience made you better, Bucky knew, and this was an unfortunate reflection of experience improving Strigoi skill.

But that still didn’t sit right with Bucky, not entirely. “Is it… is it possible that this was a different group of Strigoi?” he asks, everyone’s head swiveling to him in shock.

“Absolutely not,” one of the other school guardians, Bucky couldn’t remember his name, says.

Peggy considers his words though and Bucky can feel the tension in the room rise as she does. Peggy was easily the most respected guardian here- she was the one with the most experience and in more than one kind of guardian job unlike most of the rest of them, she had more kills than almost anyone on record, and her assessments were rarely wrong. If she was considering Bucky’s words it was because his thoughts had crossed her mind already. “What makes you think this is a different group?” she asks eventually.

Shit. Bucky always hated this part because he sucked at putting gut feelings into words and Peggy knew it. This was an exercise in learning. “The last attack felt less… structured I guess. The goal near as I can tell was to kill a crap ton of people and drink a bunch of Moroi blood. I mean yes, it was obviously organized by someone who thought things through but it was chaos even with the planning. The Strigoi almost bit off more than they could chew from what I could see, like they hadn’t anticipated Dhampir training to be so good. This attack was smaller but far more organized. Routes out were secured, wards were broken in more than one place in case stakes were knocked loose or that’s what’s I’d guess, and the evidence suggests the Strigoi were prepared for Dhampir training. More than prepared, they designed the attacks _around_ what we’re taught in Academies. And then there was the message. The goal here was a lot more organized.”

And their message was not only heard loud and clear, but so far they were successful at targeting the Royals they have now labeled their explicit targets at the last attack. Bucky shuddered just _looking_ at the note that was left at the scene. It had taken a moment to realize what the message meant, but it was the first letter of each of the Royal families last names. The letters were organized in order of family size with ‘R’ at the top for Rogers and there were tally marks beside the name of the family that was killed. It had been gruesome.

The other guardians shift uncomfortably as Bucky lays it all out like that and he knows he’s onto something then. “But a lot was the same. The extra stake could have been a fluke on the part of humans; they are rather fickle creatures sometimes. The message could have been something they had before but chose not to broadcast,” Peggy says, playing the Devil’s advocate he supposed.

“The first venue could have been some kind of a test run,” Sharon throws in.

“No,” Bucky says immediately, “that doesn’t fit. That was a larger space with more people- more could go wrong there than in a home. It wouldn’t have been the test run, an attack in a home would have been. And Peggy, what you said about the message doesn’t fit either. This group wants us to know they have a plan; they’re _taunting_ us and the Moroi. This isn’t the kind of group that would stay quiet if they had an agenda from the beginning.”

Peggy nods, approving of where he went with that. Sharon’s head snaps up and Bucky can see that something has occurred to her so Peggy turns her attention to her. Everyone else does too; mostly out of respect for Peggy. “I don’t think this is a new group- Strigoi _rarely_ gather in groups so the chances of this happening twice in less than a year is _extremely_ unlikely. But the changes would make sense if there was someone _else_ in charge of the original group,” she says.

Bucky’s eyebrows go up because he hadn’t thought of that and Sharon was right, Strigoi have only ever teamed up in groups of two or three in all of history pretty much. It made more sense than the original group had a new leader, not that there was a new group all together. “Very good,” Peggy says, “I’ll be informing the guardians at the scene of this and spreading the news. I had my suspicions that this was happening but I wanted to see if anyone else picked up on the differences.”

“With all due _respect_ , Carter, this isn’t the time to teach students. This is a time to take action,” Jack Thompson, a man Bucky knew well because he was probably the only person in the world that hated Peggy, says. His tone suggested that there was no respect there at all and his body language all but confirmed it.

Peggy’s head tips up, “well Jack, _we_ are old. We all know what happens to old guardians- we _die_. I am doing my dues to make sure that the next generation is better prepared to deal with Strigoi than we were, perhaps you should follow my lead lest more of your students end up dead,” she says harshly. Thompson, for all his trying, never had compared to Peggy in anything though it wasn’t without trying. Bucky suspected he was pissed that a woman was better than him, not that _Peggy_ was better than him.

“My students do fine in the field,” he says stiffly.

“Really? Because every student _you_ taught that was in the field died in the last two attacks. Mine survived,” she points out.

“Technically that was a fluke,” Bucky says because it’s true.

Thompson throws up his hands, “I didn’t say it.”

“Give yourself credit, Bucky. Your toxicology report showed that you drank the least amount of that drug you ingested, you managed to go through quite a few Strigoi, and I suspect the only reason you faltered was because of Steve. You were easily the most prepared person there,” she tells him.

He tries to take the compliment with grace but he can’t help but smile. Peggy didn’t hand out compliments often, if ever. “So Jack, now that you’re done proving _why_ your students keep failing you I’d like to go back to challenging mine. Bucky, Sharon, look over the Strigoi sightings and see if there’s anything to link them. And look into any strange activity in human cities, a large group of Strigoi wouldn’t go unnoticed.”

They nod and head off immediately, walking down to the guardian-specific building to do their research. That’s about when he realizes why Sharon looked kind of familiar, “are you related to Peggy?” he asks, causing her to jump.

She frowns, “how’d you know that? No one ever realizes,” she says.

“You don’t tell people?” he asks.

Sharon snorts, “would _you_ tell people Peggy Carter is your aunt?” she asks.

“Fair point, that’s a lot to live up to,” he says.

Sharon picks up speed, “oh you have _no_ idea.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have another chapter!
> 
> Warning for drug use here.

Rhodey sticks close by Tony after the second attack, which is ridiculous considering they were inside wards and those acted like an elemental barrier to keep Strigoi out. And it was hardly like their _classmates_ were going to attack him and even if they did he’d just use compulsion to get out of it. He’s done it before and it worked just fine. “I’m just being cautious,” Rhodey tells him as they head off to Peggy’s class together. Even Pepper has given up trying to get him to go to the elemental class and she was usually something like Hermione Granger in her attempts to get him to do the school thing.

“You’re a bug up my ass is what you are,” Tony tells him, “but I’ll forgive you if Bucky is right and I’ll like this class.”

That earns him a weird look, “since when do you talk to Bucky?” Rhodey asks.

“Since always, Rhodes. Come on, do you know me to pass up a pretty face?” he asks, grinning in a saucy way that was supposed to draw Rhodey’s attention away from the strange situation. And the situation _was_ strange, Tony realized. Normal students didn’t spend that much time with teachers outside of class and he and Bucky were on strangely good terms. Not that he minded, that pretty face thing was true.

“You passed up Peggy’s,” Rhodey points out.

“That’s because I don’t have a death wish. And she’s my mom’s best friend so.” That just made things weird, and it was also rumored that Peggy had a girlfriend. Though it was weird that she kept her looks, most guardians got a little weather beaten from all the training after awhile but Peggy was still stunning as ever. Hell, even the grey hair was attractive on her even if she didn’t have much of it yet. That was impressive considering her age and his mom was jealous but the grey hair looked elegant on her so Tony didn’t know why she complained.

“It’s still weird that you talk to Bucky. How regular is that?” Rhodey asks. It isn’t until he asks that Tony realizes that the conversations were frequent though harmless.

“Every once and awhile,” Tony lies, “he wanted to know why Peggy was so soft on me.” Rhodey might have detected the lie he told, but at the slight reference to Howard Rhodey winces and his own emotions drown out whatever Tony might have been putting out.

“Oh,” is all Rhodey says.

“Yeah. I told him not to tell her to worry, it wasn’t like I was fond of the man when he was alive and he was downright terrifying when he was undead so.” It was a bad joke and he knew it but he had a weird sense of humor that Pepper and Rhodey had thankfully adjusted to by now.

Rhodey keeps quiet as they enter the gym and Tony grins at what he finds there. “Mum!” he says excitedly, walking over to her.

She raises an eyebrow at him, “don’t you have a class that _isn’t_ this one?” she asks.

“Nope,” Tony lies and Maria knows it too but she leaves him be.

“Told you that you’d like todays class,” Bucky tells him, grinning at him. Tony smiles back, getting the feeling that this was about to get _really_ good. He makes his way to his usual spot in the corner and outright _laughs_ when Peggy gives them the day’s assignment. Today they were learning how to restrain Moroi from attacking, which most of the novices scoffed at until his mom nearly ripped their eyes out.

His laughter was probably pretty distracting; especially to Rhodey given that he felt the amusement through the bond too, but the novices were plain _bad_ at restraining Maria because they were too frightened they were going to hurt her. “I really hope none of their Moroi get attacked by another Moroi or they are _so_ fired,” Bucky says, leaning against the wall beside him. Today’s lesson, Tony guessed, was mostly Peggy getting frustrated at her novices for being useless and telling Maria to stop holding back on them. He didn’t really blame his mom for the restraint, none of the novices were abundantly willing to defend themselves and she couldn’t go off and rip all their ears off. It only took three pounds of force to do it.

“Does that happen a lot?” Tony asks, curious. Sure he’s seen a few scuffles but none that guardians have concerned themselves with unless it was at school. _Then_ they were on it and quick but still.

“If you have a rather mouthy Moroi all the time. I think I spent more time prying Moroi off Steve than Strigoi. He found it amusing, _I_ did not,” Bucky says.

This was the first time he’s ever mentioned Steve on his own and Tony is surprised but he doesn’t want to bring it up and make it weird either. “Sounds like Rhodey doing his best to make sure no one kicks my ass. People are a lot less tolerant since my dad you know, off and Strigoi’d.” Then his mom had off and lit him on fire and then Peggy staked him and honestly it was a mess and Maria had complained that the carpet was new. Tony was a bit upset about it too; he _liked_ that Berber before Howard _died_ on it.

“Is it true? That Maria lit him on fire?” Bucky asks Tony. He winces after a moment, looking uncomfortable but Tony shrugs. Everyone either hated him or wanted the details so this was nothing new.

“Yeah, she lit him on fire. It was kind of funny,” he lies. It was fucking _terrifying_ and he didn’t even know grown men could scream that loud and high pitched but alright. He supposed in a kind of morbid macabre way it was amusing.

“It was him or my son, that wasn’t even a _choice_ ,” Maria says from across the room, having caught wind of the conversation. The novices, Tony noticed, were being chewed out by Peggy for not doing their jobs. A lot of them had scratch marks over various body parts but it seems like his mom made them mostly non-lethal and avoided the eyes.

“You can _do_ that though?” one of the novices asks, surprised. Moroi _never_ used their magic like that _ever_. It was considered sacred and to use it against someone was a nasty offense.

“Apparently, I had no idea until it occurred to me that fire killed Strigoi and I could control fire. I was _going_ to shove him into the fireplace but fire burst from my hands instead and I figured what the hell, that was just as good so I made sure to up the heat,” she says casually. Her face is impassive and she looks unaffected. It was only because he’s known his mom his whole life that Tony could see that she was uncomfortable. Probably because of Howard’s nightmare of a face though, not because she actually felt any guilt for killing him. She told Tony after everything was cleaned up that she might have loved him once, but she was glad to be rid of him. Maybe she had nightmares and maybe she felt guilty, but less because she killed _Howard_ and more because technically she killed _someone_.

The novices stare at her in shock, half awed half confused because a few of them were still stuck on that ‘Moroi don’t do that with their magic’ thing. Rhodey just looks vaguely sick. Tony tries to send like… comforting feelings or something but ultimately he had no idea if Rhodey was feeling his calming vibes or not. After a few moments Rhodey does look over and smile at him a bit though, indicating that he felt _something_.

“Alright,” Peggy interrupts before some dumbass continues with the questioning without considering that Maria helped kill her husband, Tony lost his father, and Rhodey just about died and they were all sitting in the room with a bunch of dipwads who thought killing Howard was cool. “Leave Maria alone, at least figuratively. If none of you manage to restrain her without harming her I’ll make you all run suicides until you _actually_ die. Go!” she tells them.

Tony watches in amusement as Maria jumps on the nearest student, who flails uselessly but not at Maria lest he hurt her. “They’re hopeless,” Tony decides and Bucky snorts.

“Clearly. And sorry about that… earlier. They don’t know,” Bucky says. _Yet_ hangs heavily in the air.

“I know,” Tony says somewhat wistfully, “it’ll be sad when their bubbles are burst.”

“It always is,” Bucky agrees softly.

*

Bucky is surprised when Maria comes to find him after class is over mostly because he figured she’d be off to talk with Peggy or whatever it was they did together.

“You seem rather close with my son,” she notes.

He frowns, “well sure, he’s a bright kid. And his commentary is hilarious,” he adds. He was also troubled, deeply so and in denial about it, and Bucky was keeping an eye on him. Tony seemed to be fine lately but he’s gone spacey a few times so he got the feeling that wasn’t going to last. But he wasn’t sure how much of that Maria already knew.

“You seem more fond of him than the students that are in your class,” she adds. It isn’t until she says it that he realizes it’s true, but the novices were always up his ass about random stories they heard about him and Tony never asked about any of that. Instead he broke a bunch of rules and got suspended and then slipped the guards to go hang out in the sunlight for some reason. Since being free he hasn’t found Tony in the sun but he knew it would happen again. How no other guardian has run into him he had no idea. Or, the thought occurs to Bucky; he used compulsion to make them go away. But no, if he did that he’d use it on him too.

“He doesn’t ask about my past,” is all Bucky says but the brief shadow across Maria’s face tells him that she gets what he means.

“I suppose that’s fair. Must be rare for you around here,” she says.

“More so in this damn classroom. Students can be irritating.” Sometimes he wanted to punch them in the face and then thanked his lucky stars that he got a job where hitting the things that were annoying him was actually okay. He tells Maria that too and she laughs.

“I can see why Tony doesn’t seem as… _resistant_ to you as he is with others,” she tells him, smiling softly.

“Resistant?” Bucky asks. Sure, Tony had a reputation around here but Bucky didn’t have much solid evidence that it was earned. Other than some various incidents that Bucky has busted him in and sneaking out of his dorm while he was on house arrest Tony seemed pretty calm compared to the stories. Oh, and skipping his elemental class.

Maria raises an eyebrow, “haven’t you heard the stories? He isn’t nearly as bad now, but before Howard…” She makes a face. Bucky had heard pretty much the same thing but he had the added knowledge that Tony just internalized all that troubled behavior, which was arguably worse.

“I’ve never had any problems,” Bucky says. Except that one time he caught Tony drinking during the day, which is the only incident that Bucky would even consider particularly bad. He was _far_ worse when he was Tony’s age.

Maria squints at him for a long moment, like she was trying to determine if he was lying or something before she shrugs. “Then consider yourself lucky, Tony has some ah… _issues_ with authority figures.”

Weird, Bucky thought, because he didn’t see it. Even in the office with Fury last week he was mostly composed, though he did make several jokes about Fury’s one eye. Including one in which he asked if he was supposed to focus on the patch or the actual eye, which Bucky had to fight not to laugh at. He was supposed to be the mature one there; he couldn’t laugh at some random child’s jokes even if they were hilarious.

*

Tony was sober, mostly, when he runs into Bucky next. Okay, so _maybe_ he took a little something to help with his nerves but for some reason he’s been on edge for the last few days and it was starting to affect Rhodey. He kept asking if Tony was okay and he was, really, he was just in one of those moods again. It’ll pass just like it always did but in the meantime he could do a few things to make sure that Rhodey wasn’t getting his emotional overload leaking into his head and whatever.

“You really should avoid the sunlight. Why is it that I always find you out here? It makes more sense that you’d be inside even if you couldn’t sleep,” Bucky tells him, leaning up against a tree that was close to his little fort. He kind of wished he had something to drink here, preferably something with a high alcohol content.

“Sometimes I like the way the sun makes me feel,” he says, his voice sounding weird and distant in his own ears.

“You like feeling sick?” Bucky asks, frowning.

“Yes… well no… I don’t know,” he mumbles. It wasn’t that he liked feeling sick per se, but sometimes he just wanted to feel something that wasn’t the turmoil inside his head…

Bucky looks down at him for a long moment before he crouches beside him. Tony resents the obviously unobtrusive nature he’s trying to put out there and glares at him. “Your behavior is getting increasingly worrying,” he says, thankfully using a normal tone on him.

He probably would have smacked Bucky if he had tried using one of those soft baby voices on him. “So? It’ll be fine, it always is,” he mumbles. Things just got a little… _chaotic_ in his mind for a little while and then he drank a little or took something and things quieted some. He just needed to wait for the quiet to come back.

“Tony, I can’t just keep pretending I’m not seeing anything. You should talk to someone, maybe that friend of yours, the one that seems determined to protect you from everything,” Bucky says.

“You don’t need to if I make you forget,” Tony says, ignoring the strange lilt to his voice. This sort of thing always happened when his mind got fuzzy and that pill was kicking in now…

Bucky looks shocked that Tony threatened him but Tony doesn’t mind. Most people wouldn’t want to have someone erasing their thoughts against their will, or even with their permission.

“You _do_ know people can shake compulsion, right?” Bucky asks in a low voice, obviously assessing Tony like he was a threat.

Tony supposed he was, at least to Bucky’s mind. “If I made people forget Howard without many issues I can make you forget everything,” he says, smiling almost serenely as his mind fogs a little. Xanax was useful.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for mentions of drug use and some mental health issues.

Tony makes an effort to find Bucky the next day so he could apologize. Usually Xanax, so Tony has heard, made you forget things that happened after you take it. He found that that only happened sometimes with him and depended somewhat on dosage. The higher to dosage the more he forgot but he also thinks that’s because of his resistance to the substance too.

When he finds Bucky he looks weary, like he isn’t sure how to handle the situation and Tony figured if someone threatened to wipe his mind he’d be pretty worried about being around them too. “I am _so_ sorry,” he blurts out as soon as he gets close enough that only Bucky would hear him.

“For?” Bucky prompts.

Okay fair enough. “Threatening to use compulsion on you to wipe your mind of me being weird. I wouldn’t actually do it, and I’m shit at doing it on Xanax anyways so it wouldn’t have even worked so there was really nothing for you to worry about I was just-” he probably would have continued but Bucky cuts him off.

“You were on _Xanax_? Let me guess, you _don’t_ have a prescription for that,” he states more than asks.

Tony looks at the ground, “no. It’s not a big deal though, I have it under-”

“Control,” Bucky finishes in an almost annoyed tone, “no you _don’t_ , that’s what addicts say. Look, I don’t really have much of a choice but to report this,” Bucky tells him. He goes to try and step around Tony but Tony jumps in his way, surprised that he managed to rival the guardian in regards to reflexes. He’s seen how fast Rhodey can move and he wasn’t even done his training yet, the fact that he managed to get the jump on Bucky was more than a little impressive.

“Can I just explain?” he asks quickly.

“Do you really think that’ll help this situation? Because I probably should have reported this some time ago,” Bucky points out.

“Then why didn’t you?” Tony asks, always pushing his limits as far as they could go. There was a reason and he was going to exploit it. If he could, anyways.

His statement causes Bucky to pause for a moment though, thankfully, and he considers Tony’s question. “Because,” he says eventually, “you can’t force people to do things just because you think it’s good for them.”

“And realistically what has changed between when that first occurred and now to you? Because I can tell you that I won’t do anything I don’t want to and you’d know how good I am at hiding things considering Rhodey doesn’t know about most of this, even with the bond, which is honestly a miracle,” he says, babbling on without realizing what he just said until it was too late. _Shit_.

“You and Rhodey have a bond, _that’s_ why he’s so in tune with you! I knew you two didn’t have a normal friendship,” Bucky says, excited that he figured it out. Well, Tony told him so he shouldn’t be so excited. He didn’t even do any sleuthing or whatever, Tony just gave the information up like a god damn idiot and Rhodey was going to skin him for this.

“Yeah, yeah, everyone already knows that,” Tony says flippantly, trying to play it off like that information wasn’t important. It was, bonds between guardians and Moroi were literally only ever found in stories. Until he and Rhodey figured out that they had a bond they both thought they were fictional like everyone else did. It had taken them an embarrassingly long time to piece everything together.

“Bullshit,” Bucky says, calling Tony’s bluff immediately, “a _lot_ more people would be interested in you and Rhodey if they knew that. But Peggy suspects as much.”

True, at least Tony thought, but Rhodey never let anything slip and she was mostly on a mission to avoid Tony. Why she didn’t also avoid his mom he had no idea, but they had been good friends before. Maybe he was missing something that kept them from drifting apart after she technically killed Maria’s husband. “It’s old news,” Tony says, shrugging like this was meaningless. It’s a tactic he knew wasn’t working but he had to try _something_ for Rhodey’s sake. He didn’t want people poking and prodding at Rhodey like he was some kind of science experiment. They’d all ask what he can do and to be honest even he and Tony didn’t know the extent of their bond or even why it formed to begin with.

“No, it isn’t, or Peggy wouldn’t be watching Rhodey like she was trying to figure out what kind of connection he had to you. Unless you used compulsion on her to get her to forget and she’s trying to get her memories back…” Bucky murmurs, clearly thinking he was onto something with that.

“Jesus Christ, I didn’t use compulsion on Peggy to make her forget anything, what the hell kind of person do you think I am? People don’t know.” Rhodey was going to kick his ass for telling someone about this… hell, if he didn’t already know Tony would be shocked. Half the time he knew about the things Tony did before Tony and the other half of the time he knew _something_ happened but he didn’t know what.

“You outright admitted to using compulsion on the entire school to get them to stop talking about Howard and you threatened to use it on me, forgive me for thinking you used compulsion on Peggy,” Bucky says sarcastically.

“Of course I used compulsion on the whole school to get them to shut up about Howard! I’ve spent my entire _life_ in that piece of shit’s shadow, always having to live up to the ridiculous expectations everyone put on me because they all think that I’m _just_ like him! Well I’m not, and I wasn’t going to live in his shadow with his whole _new_ set of expectations either. He’s _dead_ and I am _tired_ of being Howard Stark’s son instead of Tony Stark. I just wanted to live a life where people judged me based on _my_ actions, not anyone else’s. Is that so much to ask?” he asks softly, looking away and blinking away the unexpected tears in his eyes angrily.

Besides, it was hardly like people didn’t have reasons to hate him for being _him_. They did given that he got rather uh… _snappy_ sometimes for no real reason and even he knew it. There were lots of reasons people could hate him that had nothing to do with Howard, and there were probably a couple reasons that people would like him that weren’t his family or money too. So he was tired of living in Howard’s shadow, who wouldn’t be? And then the asshole went and had to kill someone to turn Strigoi and ruin Tony’s life further. As if he hadn’t done enough to him already.

Bucky sighs, “I guess we all have things we’d rather people forgot about. Doesn’t mean you should have actually made them all forget though,” he says, trying to find some kind of middle ground here.

“I didn’t make them outright forget, I just made them leave me alone and stop trying to spread stupid rumors about me being Strigoi because I hate church. I’m an _atheist_.” And everyone knew that long before his father off and ruined Tony’s life more.

Unexpectedly the comment makes Bucky laugh, throwing Tony off because he still thought he was trying to battle it out with Bucky for his rights to privacy. “Sorry, that’s not funny… actually that’s hilarious but I can see why you don’t think it’s funny,” he says, snickering at Tony.

He relaxes a little and laughs, “I’d laugh if it wasn’t me,” he admits. It _was_ kind of funny if he thought about it objectively.

They sort of sit there in silence while Tony tries to think up ways to get Bucky from telling some kind of authority figure about his problems when Bucky breaks the silence.

“Look, I know better than most how stubborn people can be when they have problems. But you need to talk to someone about what’s going on with you, whatever that something is. So if you talk to someone I won’t say anything. Deal?” he asks.

Tony considers it for a long moment before he decides that Bucky didn’t tell him to talk to a _teacher_ , she said to talk to _someone_. Which meant he was talking to Rhodey, obviously. “Yeah, alright,” he agrees and Bucky looks relieved.

“Good, because you really do need the help, you know that right?” he asks, looking genuinely concerned.

“Why do you even _care_?” Tony asks. It wasn’t like he needed to.

“Because you’re smart, and funny, and passionate, and a half a dozen other things that shouldn’t go to waste because you’re too pigheaded to deal with your problems. So _please_ talk to someone, ease my mind a little,” Bucky tells him, offering him a small smile.

Tony smiles back just a little because it was nice to feel like someone cared about him. Usually he felt rather alone even if he knew he wasn’t. If no one else was there Rhodey always would be and Tony knew he’d never give up on him, even if he probably should. He just had a hard time convincing himself that was really true.

*

Rhodey knew something was off with Tony, of course he did, the bond let him know how Tony felt pretty much all the time. But Tony liked his privacy and Rhodey didn’t like to pry to be truthful. He knew if Tony needed him he’d come to him, or at least that’s what he thought until Tony _did_ come to him.

“You do _what_?” Rhodey asks, shocked when Tony drops several large pieces of information on him at once.

Tony shifts uncomfortably, “I um, don’t really sleep much,” he starts and Rhodey rolls his eyes.

“I _knew_ that Tones, sometimes you wake me up if you’re doing something particularly stupid and you get stressed out. I meant the _rest_ of what you just said.” He’s always known Tony was resourceful, sneaky. He used to get into all kinds of shenanigans with Tony that he probably shouldn’t have been in and they rarely got caught for it. He just never expected that Tony would use that against him for some reason even though it should have occurred to him.

He lets Tony have a moment to himself, knowing that he needed it because apparently he _wasn’t_ high at the moment. Or maybe he could feel Tony’s emotions through the bond anyways, who even knew at this point? “I.. I just don’t want to bother you with my shit Rhodey. So sometimes I drink a little, or take something. It’s _fine_ , really,” Tony says, trying to act like it actually was fine.

Apparently he forgot that unlike everyone else Rhodey could actually _feel_ what was happening in his mind. “One, you aren’t bothering me. _At all_. And two, this is _not_ fine Tony, this is a big deal and you need to talk to someone who is a trained professional. I’m qualified to kill stuff, not to be a mental health provider,” he points out. And even then his qualifications on killing Strigoi was questionable. He still remembered Howard, maybe a little too vividly and Tony’s own nightmares didn’t help, and it made him feel far less confident in his abilities. What if the next Strigoi he had to deal with batted him away just as easily? Older Strigoi, especially those that drank a lot of Moroi blood, were far stronger than Howard had been and probably more gifted at fighting too. If that were the case he’d kill Tony with his incompetence… He drops the thought because right now it wasn’t necessary, right now he needed to deal with Tony.

“Could we not?” Tony all but whines. “I told you so I didn’t _have_ to do that,” he mumbles.

Rhodey sighs and sits back in his seat, contemplating for a moment. “I know you don’t want to talk to someone but come on Tony, you _know_ this isn’t good for you and there’s only so much I can do.” Especially if Tony was purposefully going out of his ways to make sure Rhodey didn’t notice his moods were off but he doesn’t say that quite yet.

“Can’t I just… I don’t know, not do that? I’ll talk to you,” he says.

“Will you?” he asks seriously, “because you went out and found a bunch of different ways to keep me out to specifically _avoid_ that. What about Pepper? Does she know about any of this?” he asks. It’s selfish, he knows, to hope the answer is ‘no’ because Tony needs to be talking about things to someone but he also wanted to be the first someone he talked to. He dismisses the selfish thoughts and focuses on Tony, who looked intent on not looking at him.

“No,” he mumbles, “Pepper doesn’t know. I didn’t say anything to you because I’m already in your head and stuff, that’s got to be annoying enough to deal with so I didn’t want to add to it.”

That wasn’t an admission that he’d talk to Rhodey, he notices. “Tony, look at me,” he tells him. Tony doesn’t comply right away but eventually he does and Rhodey kicks himself in the ass for not noticing how tired Tony looks. But, if he felt like cutting himself slack, he probably thought Tony needed to see a feeder. Sleep deprivation and needing blood looked about the same on Moroi features. It was Dhampirs that were easier to read that way considering they didn’t need blood so sleep deprived it was.

“Listen carefully- you _aren’t_ bothering me in any way if you talk to me. Yes, sometimes the bond is annoying when I slip into your head but I don’t want you doing _drugs_ to keep me out, Tony, Jesus. To be honest I get more annoyed at your mental commentary at my classmates’ fighting techniques than I do when I accidentally fall into your head. Neither one of us can help me ending up in your head but you could at least keep your snarky feelings to yourself and I _know_ you’re projecting them.” It was probably one of the only times he projected his feelings at Rhodey and it was simultaneously amusing and annoying.

“Hey, I’m just trying to keep you entertained,” Tony says in his own defense.

“Well you do give me a good lesson in fighting while distracted. Might come in handy one day,” he says honestly. He used to be bad at it, back when the bond was first forming. Tony’s feelings were all over the place and they were so _intense_ and he had no clue how to deal with them. Now he was pretty good at keeping an eye on Tony’s feelings and the situation that was happening in front of him. Or at least he thought he was but now he wasn’t so sure anymore.

Tony snorts, “always guardian business with you. Don’t you ever get… I don’t know, resentful of me? I kind of ruined your life,” Tony says softly.

He’s looking away again and Rhodey frowns, “how the hell did you even _get_ to that conclusion? And no, I don’t resent you. Pepper might though, she actually has to work for her good grades.” It always annoyed her that Tony never had to try to get the grades he did but she had to work pretty hard for her grades. To add insult to injury she was usually behind Tony for highest grades too even if it wasn’t by much.

The comment does it’s job and Tony laughs a little, relaxing just enough both physically and mentally. “Yeah, she kind of does but she’s a good sport about it. But with you though, you had a life before Howard and all of that mess, you were carefree and so much less… serious and focused all the time. Don’t you ever miss that? It’s only gone because of me.”

Rhodey rolls his eyes, “I was childish and stupid, I needed to grow up and it wasn’t _you_ who took that away that was Howard. And… and to be honest I’m grateful to him for it. Not that I’d ever wish for that to happen again, for your sake, but I needed to let go of all that childishness if I was ever going to be a decent guardian. I needed to learn to protect you and not just from getting into trouble for doing stupid things I half encouraged you into. And no, I don’t miss that. I don’t miss it because I know that in the end the changes I’ve made will better protect you later and that’s all that matters to me,” he says honestly.

From birth he’d had it drilled into his head that Moroi come first- and Dhampirs kind of depended on them to continue existing. And then he met Tony in kindergarten and Justin Hammer stole some of his crackers and Tony waged a war that Rhodey somehow got caught up in and they were best friends ever since. Especially after Tony called their first grade teacher a Nazi for giving Rhodey trouble for not doing his homework. That’s when he knew he was in it for the long haul. Tony always covered for him if they were into trouble, always taking the heat even if it was Rhodey who did whatever Tony was getting into trouble for. Like the time he broke that million dollar vase that apparently belonged to some idiot Royal who was at the school to visit. Tony took the blame, leaving Rhodey out of his story entirely.

Tony might think that Rhodey was giving him too much but he gave Rhodey a lot too. There were plenty of things Rhodey would have never been able to do without Tony, and he probably would have been kicked out of school ten times over if Tony didn’t always cover for him. So it was only fair that he gave Tony something back for all of that.

“I don’t know why you care about me so much,” Tony mumbles.

“Because you’re my best friend,” Rhodey says, “and because you’ve always been there for me. _Always_.”

Tony snorts, “name one time,” he says.

“That time I stole a stake from the guardian training room and would have been expelled on the spot immediately for it and you took the blame,” Rhodey says without hesitating. Tony had sweetened the deal but playing with it too and Rhodey hadn’t had to fake looking terrified that Tony would stab himself with the damn thing, making him look innocent and Tony guilty. Tony was good at that, making it look like he did whatever it was that Rhodey should have been getting in trouble for. Never once has a teacher questioned whether or not Rhodey was really to blame even if he sometimes got in trouble along side Tony for being semi involved in his shenanigans.

“That was one time,” Tony argues.

“Okay fine, there was that vase incident, all those cool ski trips we went on over Christmas breaks, that time you punched Ivan Vankov for calling my mom a blood whore even though he tried to kill you afterwards and I had to save your ass. Also there was that time I stayed up all night on a Sunday to get drunk instead of studying and you gave me the answers our math test Monday. I could go on for awhile actually, do you really want a list?” he asks. Because he’d give Tony one if it made him feel better.

Tony smiles a little, “do you really feel like I actually do stuff for you? Because I always feel like you’re doing all the giving and I’m doing all the taking.”

“Of course I do, and you aren’t doing all the taking. You do stuff for Pepper and I all the time,” Rhodey says.

“Name one thing I’ve ever done to Pepper aside from annoy her?” Tony says.

“You gave her study tips that actually improved her grades quite a bit. She’ll be thankful to you forever for that,” Rhodey points out. Tony looks annoyed that he had an example that fast but sighs, “okay fine, maybe I do some things for you.”

 _But it isn’t enough_ hangs heavily in the air but Tony only thinks it- Rhodey can feel it.

“Promise me you’ll talk to me, alright?” Rhodey asks. If he did then maybe he could talk Tony into getting some actual help.

Tony heaves a heavy sigh, purposefully being dramatic, but he agrees. It was a relief to Rhodey because Tony was all kinds of sneaky and if he agreed to talk to him that was at least a step forward in not having him use that sneakiness to his advantage to purposefully hide things from him. He does walk over to Tony and hug him though, tightly, because he needed Tony to know that he cared about him and not just because he was supposed to care about Moroi as a species. Tony hugs him back, burying his face in Rhodey’s chest. He can feel Tony taking actual comfort in the touch and he’s happy for it. Maybe it would teach Tony that Rhodey really did care about him even if he didn’t know it.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it finally happens (>.>)

Rhodey, unfortunately, starts paying _way_ more attention to Tony. It wasn’t something he’d usually mind, he liked attention, but he would have preferred if Rhodey kept a _little_ distance. Pepper was on him too, always around when Rhodey wasn’t, or at least not physically. Tony was pretty sure he checked in on his mind often and he didn’t really know what to make of that. He understood _why_ Rhodey did it he just wanted his mind to be well… his.

None of this made him sleep any more than he usually did but he tended to stay indoors more, mostly because the one time he managed to sneak out during the day Rhodey busted him and shooed him back inside. So it was somewhat unusual that he was outside, but in his defense it was twilight _and_ he had an umbrella so he figured Rhodey would leave him be.

“Did you talk to someone?” Someone asks, making Tony jump for a moment before he realizes it’s Bucky.

“Yeah and Rhodey has been up my ass all week. And he stole all my Xanax,” he says grumpily. All his hidden stashes too, _and_ he had been smart enough to look all over the rest of campus. Guess he knew Tony better than he thought, or maybe he caught wind of Tony’s thoughts and got to his hidden stashes before Tony did. Either way he was annoyed that his drugs were stolen.

Bucky sighs, “I should have known you’d twist my words, not that I didn’t notice you said something to Rhodey. He’s been around you more than usual, which I didn’t even think was possible. Have you talked to anyone _else_?” Bucky asks, obviously meaning a trained professional.

“No, and not for a lack of Rhodey trying. He stole all my pot and booze too,” Tony says, offended at this. He could have left him _something_ behind.

“Good. I hope it helps. You should talk to someone who can actually deal with this though, Rhodey can only do so much,” Bucky tells him somewhat gently.

“Look, I’m not out at noon drinking and I have an umbrella to keep the sun from zapping my energy, what more can you ask for?” Probably lots but he keeps that to himself.

Bucky considers Tony for a long moment before he sits down beside him, “are you feeling any better?” he asks. He’s interested in the answer, Tony can tell, because he could see the interest in both his facial expression and his aura. When he drank or took some kind of pill it usually dulled his ability to see the colors that surrounded people, making them more manageable. Now that he didn’t have that seeing the colors was a lot more distracting and it gave him a headache to look at people sometimes.

“Not really. Auras give me headaches and sometimes I just want to take a shit in private but Rhodey insists on crawling up my ass. Guess at least I know that if I _do_ want to talk to someone he’ll listen though.” Maybe a little too much but he was there for Tony at least.

“I knew he would,” Bucky says, “you have a good amount of support you know. I’m sure your mom would listen too. Peggy doesn’t keep friends that aren’t up to her standards and her standards are high.”

True, Tony knows, because Rhodey is her favorite student and her expectations for him were always higher than everyone else’s even before Rhodey got serious. He’s surprised at the mention of his mother though because aside from the occasional dropping in on Tony’s life and her appearance in two of Rhodey’s classes she was mostly absent from his life. But she was a good person nonetheless, even if Tony wished she were around more. Sometimes he wondered if she avoided him because he looked so much like Howard and he resented his piece of shit father more for giving Tony any of his physical looks.

He doesn’t respond to Bucky and instead they sit in relative silence until Tony remembered he was a guardian who probably had guardian things to do. Bucky informs him that he was out for a morning run and had just gotten back though so Tony feels less guilty about keeping him here. The air is brisk, winter was coming soon, and Tony shivered. He had less resistance to the elements than Bucky did and he felt temperature changes faster. Damn vampire genes. If it wasn’t for that pesky devoting his entire life to a Moroi he’d rather be a Dhampir. But he’s selfish and he could never put someone ahead of himself like Rhodey did with him all the time. He’d end up running off and he’d bring shame to his family instead of his father doing it for him. Guess the good news is that he couldn’t possibly top turning into an evil undead creature as far as disappointment goes.

“Are you cold?” Bucky asks after a few long moments.

“A little,” Tony admits, curling into himself some. Actually he was quite chilly now- he should have thought to bring a jacket given that the sun was going down, meaning the temperature dropped with it.

He jumps a little in surprise when Bucky wraps an arm around him but relaxes into it quickly. “Do Dhampirs run a higher temperature or what? Because I’m jealous.” Rhodey always felt warm to him too but maybe that was because muscle kept him warm or something. He and Pepper practically had to glue themselves together to gather any warmth in the winter between classes and they both glued themselves to Rhodey in their afternoon classes.

“Nah, we just don’t react to the weather like Moroi do. You guys are sensitive to the changes and we aren’t. It also helps that I’m used to this kind of weather thanks to morning runs,” Bucky says.

“Part of training?” Tony guesses. Rhodey did some extra running somewhat often too, a tip he got from Peggy that only a few other students decided to pick up on. They were among the students Peggy preferred.

“It is,” Bucky confirms.

“Why though? I thought you guys were trained to kill Strigoi, not run from them.” He had never asked Rhodey about it and now he kind of wished he did. He had a million and one questions about being a guardian now that he thought about it and it would look weird if he asked them all to Bucky instead of you know, the entire person that was his best friend that would also have all the answers he’s looking for. Even if he kind of preferred asking Bucky. Rhodey might think he was getting ideas or something when mostly he was just curious.

“We are, but we’re also trained to use the safest method of getting our Moroi to safety. Sometimes that’s running and that’s why beheading a Strigoi is rare, it takes too much time and leaves you and your Moroi too open to attack,” Bucky explains. That made sense in it’s own weird way, but with the way novices talked he didn’t think running would ever be an option they would consider except maybe Rhodey and even that was questionable. Rhodey liked to face his problems head on and Tony got the feeling that’d translate to a fight.

“Have you ever done it? Behead a Strigoi I mean,” Tony clarifies.

Bucky nods. “When… when some of these attacks started getting a little weird I was technically on vacation, one Steve all but forced me to take, and a friend of mine asked if I could help the guardians out at a family get together that night. I agreed because I was bored and at that point in my life I honestly had no idea how to do anything but be a guardian. I was patrolling outside when something caught my eye and I was lucky it did too. The black that I noticed didn’t fit in with the shadows and if I hadn’t seen the Strigoi there I would have been dead in seconds easily. I staked that one and I heard one of the other patrolling guardians yell across the yard about Strigoi. There were only four that time, but I ended up shoving on into a fireplace and the other one got axed. The guys there joked that only I’d manage to kill Strigoi in all three possible ways in a single night. Probably why I have a reputation I don’t deserve,” he mumbles.

Tony was surprised one of those Strigoi would have made it into the house unless the fireplace was outside, which was possible given that this was one hundred percent a bunch of Royal Moroi getting together. But killing Strigoi in all three possible ways in a single event _was_ impressive mostly because they usually don’t show up in groups that large.

“Because of Steve?” Tony asks softly, wondering if Bucky blamed himself for his Moroi dying.

“That’s part of it yeah. I should have been able to protect him but it’s more than that. I… do you ever get the feeling that people see you in a totally different way than you see yourself and you’re on edge, waiting for them to see you like you do? It feels like I’m a sham most days, like people are only seeing me in part and it’s only ever the good parts. Makes me wonder what they’d do if they saw all the bad,” Bucky says.

The admission is more than a little personal and Tony was surprised. People didn’t tend to open up to him much, if ever. He had a reputation that suggested he wasn’t the kind of person you went to when you had a problem. Nevertheless, “I know what you mean,” he says, “before Howard I had a pretty weird reputation too. I was kind of known as a womanizing bastard and I never was comfortable with that but sometimes when people expect you to play the part, well, you do. Then Howard happened and now everyone thinks I’m four seconds away from going Strigoi at any moment. To be honest some of the rumors, before I used the compulsion, were nasty enough that I was tempted to do it just so I could make them suffer.” He doesn’t mean to say that last bit but for a moment he feels that burning rage he felt then.

How _dare_ his classmates compare his actions to Howard’s when there was nothing to suggest he’d ever do what Howard did? Why did everyone have to suddenly decide _he_ was a bad person because someone else made a bad decision? Howard’s actions shouldn’t have had repercussions for him and his mother when they were as much Howard’s victims as the guy he killed, maybe even more so given his years of abuse. Rhodey once said that he wished he knew his dad, most Dhampirs didn’t know their fathers, but Tony always thought that he was lucky for it. He had a father and they weren’t all they’re cracked up to be.

“Everyone wants someone to hurt at some point in their life, but they rarely follow through on hurting them. Your classmates are shortsighted though because I doubt you’ve ever been what they think you are, especially not now,” Bucky says, looking down at him.

Tony realizes how close they are now though logically they have been sitting close this whole time. At some point Tony started leaning into Bucky, probably for warmth, but he was comfortable there under Bucky’s remaining arm. “And what do you see in me that other’s don’t?” he asks softly. _Damaged goods_ was what came to his mind but the thought leaves as quickly as it came. Instead he focuses on the strangely bright blue of Bucky’s eyes that kind of reminded him of the Vankov family. They were a group of Royals that came from Eastern Europe, like most Royals before they got more spread out and the families shifted and changed as new people took power. Tony’s own family was Italian. It was odd though, seeing the bright blue elsewhere and he wonders if maybe Bucky was some Vankov’s illegitimate kid but he brushes the ludicrous thought aside.

“For one I think you’re smarter than anyone realizes. People know you’re good in school but I don’t think they realize you’re _intelligent_ , astonishingly so. You managed to hide some pretty severe mental health issues from someone who can all but read your mind and that’s probably the least that you can do. And I think you’re far more caring than people assume you are too. I always hear the word ‘selfish’ attached to you but I know you did your best to dull that bond because you didn’t want to impede on Rhodey’s life, and I know you sit in on his classes because you want to give him some kind of sign that you support him. You could be anywhere else but you chose _there_ for a reason. And I think that you’re hurt more than anyone knows because people assume that when you tell jokes you’re in a good mood, but that’s the furthest from the truth. You tell jokes to deflect from yourself, you do it so people stop looking at you and that’s why you snap at people too. You don’t want anyone too close,” Bucky tells him.

Tony can see the way his aura lights up with the speech too, the colors showing an array of emotions that ranged anywhere from mild annoyance to attachment to a strange sense of responsibility. But mostly what he sees is that Bucky believes every word that came out of his mouth and he should because they hit too close to home for Tony to be comfortable with.

“I thought you were going to say something about my good looks and charm but alright, I’m smart. I’ll take it,” he quips and Bucky’s lips quirk up.

“Deflecting. I hit too close to home, didn’t I?” he asks. Tony doesn’t dignify that with a response because it probably didn’t need one. “Don’t be so frightened, Tony, you’ve managed to hit a bit close to home for me too.”

“When?” Tony asks, racking his brain for a time when Bucky was more vulnerable than he was. He couldn’t remember one. Guardians weren’t meant to be vulnerable, they were meant to be strong.

“You remind me of him. Steve,” Bucky says, “with all that passion and stubbornness. You’re a totally different person but sometimes… sometimes I swear you’re just like him.”

“In your defense we’re probably related. Royal families are less comprised of family trees and more comprised of family wreaths,” he says. He was sure he was related to the Rogers family somewhere.

Bucky laughs, “you’re not wrong,” he says eventually. No, Tony knew he wasn’t because finding a Royal that wasn’t related to him was like finding a specific needle in a pile of needles. It just wasn’t possible. And people looked down on him for dating the commonwealth. Better than his _cousins_ in his opinion. So he slept with the lowly Moroi who weren’t from the Royal families, at least he wasn’t going to have inbred babies. Actually he wouldn’t be having _any_ babies if he had his way.

They sit in comfortable silence as the sun drops low enough in the sky that Tony doesn’t need the umbrella to keep him out of the sun anymore so he folds it and sets it at his feet. “Ten bucks says I can get Rhodey to punch Justin Hammer full force in the face today,” Tony says as the sky turns a dark shade of purple. People would be getting up soon.

“ _Please_ get him to do it, I really dislike him for some reason,” Bucky says, wrinkling his nose.

“You dislike him because he’s fucking annoying,” Tony tells him, “and his voice is like nails on a chalkboard.”

“True, but I feel like I should have a real reason for disliking him,” Bucky says, looking down at Tony.

Tony leans his head on Bucky’s shoulder, “trust me being Justin Hammer is enough to make anyone hate the guy. Even _Rhodey_ hates him and Rhodey just can’t hate anybody.” It was true, he was far more forgiving than Tony could ever be.

Bucky smiles, “so I know he stole your crackers and that’s why you don’t like him, but how come he hates you?” Bucky asks.

“He’s jealous of my good looks and charm,” Tony says without missing a beat, batting his eyelashes at Bucky.

He doesn’t expect Bucky to take the comment seriously but he does, bright blue eyes roaming Tony’s face. “Well, there’s a lot to be jealous of,” Bucky admits.

Tony grins, “‘course there is, I’m gorgeous,” he says, offering a dazzling smile.

Bucky considers Tony for a moment before smiling just a little himself and pressing his forehead to Tony’s, “yeah, you are,” he breaths and _oh_. Tony didn’t intend for this to happen but… well Bucky was more than his type and he’s always been known for being reckless plus… well Bucky knew stuff about him that other people didn’t. And he’s really pretty.

Plus his momma didn’t raise a quitter so he tilts his head up a little and kisses Bucky. It’s short and sweet and Tony wants more but Bucky pulls away for a moment before he places another small kiss on Tony’s lips, “go to class,” he tells him and Tony groans. _Class_. He hated class.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note- please don't date your teachers! Do not. That's creepy irl y'all. I mean it's creepy here too I acknowledge that.

Bucky should probably flog himself for nine hundred years for kissing Tony. What the fuck had he been thinking? _That the conversation was nice and he knows you better than most_ flits through his mind but he tells that part of himself to fuck off. This was bad, this was really bad… First off he’s supposed to be a _teacher_ of some kind and even though he was terrible at it there were still lines you don’t cross.

 _Well, technically Tony kissed you_ that little voice thinks at him and he shakes his head. What the hell did that matter when he kissed him back? And then kissed him _again_. Jesus, if Steve was here _he’d_ flog Bucky for nine hundred years for this and he’d deserve it.

He shakes his head again because he needs to think this through clearly so he could deal with this. He kissed a student but _why_ would he do something so stupid? _You’ve always had a reckless streak_ his mind reminds him, which was true. Half the reason why he’s killed as many Strigoi as he has is because he was willing to do things with less planning than others. Generally if the choice was between fight or flight most guardians chose flight because that was safer. Bucky tended to weigh things differently, thinking further ahead than some guardians might. Steve had never been fast, and thanks to a having most of the diseases Moroi could actually catch it meant he couldn’t run far even if he could run fast.

So it led to Bucky fighting more than a lot of guardians would because that, in the long run, would be the safer option. He’d either have to fight right away or he’d have to fight when Steve inevitably couldn’t run anymore. Other guardians have called him reckless for it, but when it came down to a fight Bucky had more experience and tended to be more effective than they were so really, was his style really that bad? And he wasn’t an idiot about it either, if it was actually possible to get Steve to a safer location he did but most of the times if they were on foot that wasn’t happening.

But he knew he was more reckless than most, that he’s always been that way. Is that why he kissed Tony though? _No_ is his immediate response but he thinks harder about it. Was this some kind of response to not being in the field, and therefore in danger, anymore? He thinks of Tony, how he’s found him in all sorts of situations that were… well reckless, stupid, and probably all kinds of damaging to his mental health and he decides his initial response was right. He… well he related to Tony and on some level he understood that brash and reckless behavior despite the affects on himself. He’s been reckless too, and while he was never particularly reckless with Steve’s safety if he was on some other kind of Strigoi killing mission, though they almost never happened, he didn’t hold back the same way he did when he was in guardian mode. When he was in school Peggy told him that’d either kill him or save him and so far it was the latter.

There was also that pesky being reminded of Steve whenever he saw Tony too, which was far more complicated and tangled than his previous theory on kissing Tony. Steve used to accuse him of being a white knight, telling him that he always wanted to save the day and he wasn’t wrong. Peggy used to comment on that too, until he learned how to properly handle those feelings. Did he want to save Tony? _Yes_ was the immediate response and he figured he didn’t need to question it that much. Anyone who was paying attention to Tony could see that he needed something or someone to help him out, even Rhodey noticed while Tony did his best to block him out. But was it his place to try and save Tony? _No_ was the immediate response to that and that wasn’t wrong either.

Tony had friends, his mom, the school; he didn’t need Bucky so why was Bucky messing with his life when he had no right to? And that… that was the real question here. What the hell could Bucky _possibly_ be getting out of Tony’s presence when the age difference alone made their relationship more than a little weird let alone the sort-of-teacher thing? Tony, he was pretty sure, was seventeen and he was twenty three. Six years might not be a lot in ten years but right now he and Tony were at completely different points in their lives, there was nothing about Tony that should draw Bucky in.

And he _was_ drawn in.

After thinking about this for some time he comes to the conclusion that Tony didn’t at all act his age, which was basically the first line in the He’s A Fucking Creep handbook. That was always the excuse, wasn’t it? That the child didn’t act their age? Except Tony really did have a lot of experience on adults in areas they couldn’t possibly understand, not that that excused Bucky’s actions. Still there was something about Tony that appealed to him, some kind of understanding that didn’t exist with anyone else at the moment.

In the end it didn’t matter though because this wasn’t right and he wasn’t about to take advantage of Tony like that, not when he already had more problems than he needed. It just wasn’t right.

*

Tony has been told by many that he was as observant as a particularly stupid pigeon but that wasn’t true. He just didn’t pay attention to the useless details, which was basically everything everyone _else_ noticed. Birthdays in particular were his downfall- everyone expected him to memorize the dates but he didn’t have any interest in celebrating a completely mundane event _every year_. People didn’t like that answer though but thankfully for him he didn’t care.

That didn’t mean he didn’t _notice_ things though. He always knew when Rhodey was upset even when he tried to hide it, and he knew all of Pepper’s favorite songs because hearing them always put her in a better mood. Those things, he felt, were more important than _birthdays_. So he noticed when Bucky started avoiding him, or at least not going out of his way to talk to Tony. It was kind of weird when he realized exactly how much they talked, and it was even weirder when _Rhodey_ noticed Bucky’s cooling off towards him.

“What’d you do to piss him off?” Rhodey asks, chewing on some vegetable or some shit thoughtfully. Tony would never understand Rhodey’s freak health diet even if he knew it helped him keep in shape.

“Nothing,” Tony says. He hoped anyways. Usually people didn’t _avoid_ him when… well he wasn’t going to think too hard about that because Rhodey was watching and by some miracle he hadn’t known _who_ Tony kissed this morning.

“Who cares about Bucky not talking to Tony, that’s hardly gossip. Who’d you kiss?” Pepper asks, leaning in excitedly.

“Since when do you care?” he counters. Pepper usually lamented about his uh… _love_ life.

“Since I realized life was boring without a slutty friend, up your game Stark. Fuck your way through the guys, have everyone spread rumors about _them_ for a change,” Pepper tells him, waving her fork around.

“You’ve got some ideas on where to start, I presume?” he asks more to distract Rhodey from looking too closely at his mind, which was working, but Pepper surprises him with an actual answer.

“Uh yeah, start with Ezekiel Stane. That guy is an _asshole_ ,” she says, glaring in the offending target’s general direction.

Rhodey looks over casually, barely making it look like he looked unlike Tony, who flat out gawked. “Jesus Stark, I need to give you lessons in not making yourself look a fool. Is he giving you problems, Pepper?” Rhodey asks in that familiar protective tone of his.

Tony immediately gets excited, “yes, _please_ beat up Ezekiel Stane!” he says, glee all over his tone.

This earns him a frown from Rhodey, “is he bothering _you_?” he asks, raising an eyebrow. Ever protective, he was and Tony could appreciate it when it was convenient for him.

“Nah, I just want to see you beat up some Moroi instead of the regular Dhampirs,” Tony tells him, shrugging unapologetically when Rhodey rolls his eyes and turns back to Pepper.

“He’s not giving me problems exactly, but he isn’t nice to me either. We have a history project together and I’m tired of his annoying comments about hanging out with Strigoi,” Pepper says primly. “I told him if he didn’t shut his mouth the Strigoi he’d be hanging out with would be me.”

“Nice!” Tony tells her enthusiastically, sticking his hand out for a high five. She complies as Rhodey considers his options and gets up. Tony practically vibrates with excitement as Rhodey walks over to Stane casually, leaning against his lunch table as he says something.

Stane must not have taken Rhodey very seriously because he’s all smirks and likely snide comments. Tony figures Rhodey would give him a snarky comment or a witty one-liner the way he usually did but instead he hauls the guy out of his seat by his collar and Stane’s face goes bone white. “Kick his ass!” Tony calls from across the lunch room, grinning like a loon.

“Jesus Tony, way to alert the guardians,” Pepper mumbles at him.

“Oh please, they already noticed I just want Rhodey to get a punch in first,” Tony tells her, waving her off. The guardians were already most of the way over when Rhodey drops Stane on his ass and puts his hands up, signaling that he was done there and amazingly he gets to walk away from the encounter. Stane didn’t look pleased about this but beyond making sure he was okay the guardians seemed content to let Rhodey rough him up a little. They must _really_ hate the guy then because Dhampirs _never_ got away with shit like that. They were supposed to protect Moroi, not dangle them by their collars.

“They don’t hate Stane, they like me,” Rhodey tells him, responding to his thoughts no doubt. Creepy but also useful.

“How do you know?” Tony asks.

“Being Peggy Carter’s favorite _does_ come with a few perks and getting away with more is one of those perks. At least so long as I don’t actually cross any lines and Stane was fine so I am too,” Rhodey says.

“What did he say to you?” Pepper asks, obviously as surprised as Tony was that Rhodey hauled the dude out of his seat to dangle him a little. He never really had a temper before all of Tony’s mess caught him in the middle of it so this was a surprise even if Rhodey was still as reckless as he used to be.

Rhodey keeps his face impassive, “nothing beyond the usual mess that Howard brought upon us all but I figured I’d make a more uh _physical_ stand to ward people off.” So he intended to scare the Moroi into shutting the hell up about Tony so Tony didn’t have to do any of the work himself. Rhodey had noticed that Tony’s moods got worse when he used his magic or whatever it was he could do. It was sweet that he was trying to make sure Tony didn’t have to use it but he was going to get expelled if he had to respond like that every time someone said something shitty about Tony. “I’ll be _fine_ Tony. Another perk of being Peggy’s favorite- she doesn’t favor anyone without a bright future. With guardian numbers dwindling they’re hardly going to kick me out.” Yeah, so he thought. Tony wasn’t willing to chance it so much.

“You know what, back to a more interesting and less dark topic. Tony! Tell us who you’re kissing in the morning so we have all the gossip before anyone else,” Pepper says, leaning forward again.

“I don’t kiss and tell,” Tony tells her, nose in the air.

Rhodey and Pepper outright laugh at that, which was just _rude_. “Since when? Usually you tell before you kiss, and then you gloat,” Pepper points out.

“I’ve changed my hoeing ways,” Tony says, still offended at their reaction.

“Have not,” Pepper says, “just tell us who you’re messing around with, I am _starved_ for gossip because all these idiots talk about is you going Strigoi. It’s boring.”

“Since when do you like gossip?” Rhodey asks her, thankfully taking Tony’s side here.

Pepper shrugs, “you realize things about yourself when your best friend is no longer the center of the school’s attention and a total slut. I realized I like gossip so long as it doesn’t involve me and it doesn’t involve ludicrous rumors of Tony becoming a member of the undead. Don’t you miss all the shenanigans Tony used to get into?” Pepper asks Rhodey.

“No because I don’t have to go saving his ass every ten minutes,” Rhodey says.

“You disappoint me. Tony, _please_ go back to your slutty ways if for no other reason than saving me from boredom. And also get that English homework done, your teacher has taken to harassing _me_ now,” Pepper says, looking more like her regular annoyed at Tony’s antics self. Who knew she’d taken a secret liking to his party boy days?

“One, I hate English so _no_ and two, I always thought you hated when I got drunk and did stupid shit.” She used to scold him almost more than Rhodey used to.

“I told you to be a slut, not a borderline alcoholic and we both know that in light of recent events you and alcohol should not go together. But use condoms, I am _not_ taking care of your offspring,” she tells him, giving him a _look_. “And hand in your English homework before _I_ start to harass you for it,” Pepper says, knowing how to hit Tony where it hurt. Damn, now he had no choice.

“I’d actually prefer if you didn’t hoe it up,” Rhodey tells him, “because I am not vetting every person you sleep with. I couldn’t keep up.”

“You guys are terrible! I did _not_ sleep with that many people!” he says in his own defense. Pepper and Rhodey squint at him a little, clearly wondering if he remembered the same things they did. _Rude_.

*

He manages to corner Bucky after Day Three of near radio silence and he doesn’t look impressed about it. “Yeah that’s right, I read like five of Rhodey’s text books to figure out how to do this,” Tony says, hands on his hips because he was _annoyed_ damnit. Hopefully not too annoyed that Rhodey would accidentally slip into his head though he’d worry about that later if it happened.

“You only managed to catch me off guard because you’re a Moroi and I hardly expected you to have any skill. Still don’t considering reading and doing are two different things,” Bucky tells him in a cool tone. Ouch.

“Well I managed to corner you, didn’t I? Guess reading has its merits after all,” he says in an equally cool tone. Damnit, this wasn’t what he wanted out of this…

Bucky sighs and presses his fingers to his temples, “what do you want, Tony?”

Good question, one Tony wasn’t entirely sure he knew how to answer. “I… what the hell is with the silence the last few days?” he asks eventually, unsure of where to go from here. Damn, he really should make plans before he does things.

Bucky gives him an almost pitying look and Tony _glares_ because he _loathes_ pity more than most anything else. He didn’t need anyone’s damn pity. “Look, the last time we uh _talked_ … well it shouldn’t have happened alright. It’s all kinds of creepy on my part,” Bucky says, wrinkling his nose in distaste at himself.

This… was he fucking kidding? “Uh, I don’t know if you know this but my birthday isn’t that far away. What the hell would be the difference between me now and me then?” he asks. Seven months wasn’t exactly a lot of time for an abundance of character growth or whatever. Logically there would be next to no difference between his maturity then when compared to now. Age was one of those subjective and arbitrary things in his opinion. One that he only formed like _right now_ but still.

“Believe me Tony, a few months can change everything. You know that as well as I do- unless you predicted you’d be here last year,” Bucky says and really, that was hitting below the belt. No, he hadn’t expected himself to be here last year but that was hardly fair. Tony couldn’t help his father’s decisions and the fallout from it.

“So what, you expect my other dad to go Strigoi and try and just about off my best friend? Because I don’t have another one thank god. The first one was shitty enough. Point is I really don’t see why you think you’re creepy or whatever given that I don’t and isn’t it _my_ opinion that matters?” he asks. Given that he was the younger party and all.

“Of course you say that now, Tony, but you won’t later,” Bucky tells him.

Tony grits his teeth, annoyed that Bucky would try and tell him how he would feel at any point in his life. “Well you don’t know me very well because now I won’t regret it just because you told me I would,” he snaps, irritated with this.

“Real mature,” Bucky says, rolling his eyes and _oh_ , that hurt. Even if he kind of had a point.

“Fine,” Tony snaps, “then what the hell do you suggest I do?”

Bucky sighs again, “find someone your own age,” he says.

*

Rhodey could feel Tony’s annoyance probably before he even registered it but all he caught was the tail end of an argument in which Tony was stewing over his supposed immaturity. Tony’s thoughts were somewhat confusing to follow given that all he had was a very disgruntled Moroi and a lot of frustration. He tries to read further into it but Tony seemed intent on blocking it out because, as usual, he didn’t want to deal with it. He could dig further if he wanted to, he was half in Tony’s head already but… Tony hated it when he did that and he did want to give him _some_ privacy. Plus he didn’t like seeing things from Tony’s point of view any more than Tony liked him being in his head.

The last thing he, and Tony, expects though is to run into someone. Literally. “Someone should watch where he’s going,” the person says as his books hit the ground. His voice, at least to Tony, is silky and smooth. Rhodey thinks he sounds slimy and shit, he’s bending over to pick up the guy’s books and apologizing. No, _Tony_ is bending over picking up the guy’s books and apologizing. He was just along for the ride until he either managed to oust himself or Tony calmed some.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to run you over,” Tony is says, flustered and annoyed by some unknown person. Tony isn’t thinking in clear images so all Rhodey gets is a general feeling that he’d rather not be a part of given the healthy amount of lust there. _Ew_. He loved his best friend but feeling his sexual desire was just disturbing.

“Obviously,” the other person drawls, “but you could make it up to me by showing me around today.” This is when Tony looks up to hand the guy his books and right away Rhodey wants Tony the hell out of there, particularly when he’s struck dumb by how attractive the guy is. God _damnit_.

Rhodey, if he was forced to admit it, would acknowledge that the guy was attractive. He was tall and slim like most Moroi and he had long black hair and striking green eyes that almost certainly indicated that he was Royal. He also had a smarmy grin and a general feel of sleaze but Tony didn’t feel any of that, he was just looking at the guy’s face and in his frustration with whomever pissed him off he was happy to look. More than look really, more like check out. And the guy was happy to be checked out.

Tony smiles wide, the one smile he used when he was flirting Rhodey knew- _gross_ \- as he the guy took his books back. “I’d be happy to show you around, what classes do you have?” he asks, putting out an air of confidence that bordered on arrogance and god damnit Rhodey did not want to be in Tony’s head while he flirted with some sleaze ball. Rhodey was ousting himself from Tony’s mind immediately.

Mystery Guy hands over his schedule and Tony reads it over, including the guy’s name. “Loki? That’s an unusual name. And if I were you I’d switch out of art history _stat_ ,” he says, wrinkling his nose at the class.

“I’m actually rather fond of art history,” Loki tells him, smiling when Tony looks confused. Tony’s embarrassment probably didn’t show on his face but Rhodey still felt it all the same. Of course he had to insult a subject the guy liked. Rhodey was happy about this, however, because it meant he’d leave Tony the hell alone. “And yes, my name is unusual though I’m at a disadvantage. You know my name but I don’t have yours,” he says, smiling at Tony in a way that made Tony flush but reminded Rhodey of a cat sizing up a mouse. And Tony was being a very cooperative mouse. He would have tried to purposefully force himself out of Tony’s head at this point but Loki was sketchy and Rhodey wanted to keep an eye on this.

“Tony,” he says, leaving his last name out in purpose due to the whole his-father-went-Strigoi thing that tended to scare everyone off.

“Stark, right?” Loki asks and laughs when Tony’s surprise reaches his features. “Even if the features weren’t immediately recognizable the charm certainly is.”

The comment gives Tony the warm and fuzzies but Rhodey thinks this guy is playing a game. _No one_ reacted that way to Tony thanks to Howard so what was this guy up to? Tony ducks his head a little and smiles, “most people these days would think my charm was a way to give them a false sense of security before I killed them to go Strigoi thanks to my asshole father,” he says and kicks himself immediately for saying that. _Shit_. Why was he like this? No, Rhodey wasn’t like anything, that was Tony’s thought not his.

“Well,” Loki says in that slimy tone of his, “you’re hardly your father, right?” He smiles and leans closer to Tony and he knows _exactly_ what he’s doing. The weird thing is that Tony should too but he’s seemed to have learned how to block the auras out now without help from some kind of drug. Either that or he was just purposefully avoiding drawing the colors up. _Damnit_. He was playing Tony and for some reason Tony was falling for it!

Actually no, Rhodey knew the mix of Tony’s feelings well so he knew exactly what was going on but he didn’t have to like it. He was spurned by his mystery lover and now someone attractive thought he wasn’t like his father. This guy could not have picked a better time to find Tony if he tried. Not that it would matter because Rhodey was going to make sure this snake was far, _far_ away from Tony _long_ before whatever plan he had was realized. He had no clue what this Loki wanted from Tony but he was going to be vastly disappointed when he didn’t get it.

Rhodey pulls himself out of Tony’s head with relative ease and he realizes that he hung around too long, at least by Tony’s standards. He’s learned how to pull himself out of Tony’s head when his emotions were running high though it was difficult. Pulling out of Tony’s head when he was emotionally stable though, that was easy. He couldn’t bring himself to feel bad about overstaying his welcome though because if he hadn’t he wouldn’t know what was going on with that Loki guy and something told him he was going to look pretty convincingly harmless to Rhodey and Pepper to avoid suspicion.

Which made Rhodey wonder what this guy even wanted from Tony at all. Last year the answer would have been easy but now with Tony fallen from grace thanks to Howard? Rhodey was at a loss and he didn’t like it.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for some (very) minor gore.
> 
> Also I decided to flip Loki and Thor's backstories because that suited my narrative (so Thor is the adopted one).

Sharon looks annoyed and she tosses some papers aside, “there is no pattern to the influx in Strigoi sightings but there is _something_ there,” she says in an annoyed tone.

“There’s a pattern,” Bucky corrects, “we just don’t know what it is yet.” There was something about the way Strigoi were being spotted, and the locations it just… there was a piece of this puzzle missing.

“Nothing here suggests any unusual pattern, it’s just a feeling that I’ve got that suggests it isn’t and that’s not real evidence,” Sharon says, rubbing her eyes. Bucky agreed and initially he didn’t find anything unusual about the sightings. There were always Strigoi sightings after a successful attack but something about the way these were popping up were too… structured.

“We should ask Peggy to look at this stuff,” he suggests. She was better than both of them stuck together on her worst day, she’d know how to handle this better than they would but Sharon’s immediate look of distaste suggested she wasn’t okay with that idea. “She’d find the pattern faster and speed is what we need here,” he reminds her. They needed to get on top of this fast because Moroi were getting pretty pissed at what they perceived as guardian incompetence. In reality it was just guardians not knowing how to handle situations like this. Before these last couple of attacks they’ve never dealt with anything like this. They couldn’t be prepared for a situation that was considered impossible until a few months ago.

“No,” Sharon tells him, “we need intelligence and strategy. If we can get ahead of them we can stop them far more effectively. I… wait, reread those reports and try and map out exactly how the Strigoi encounters go. I have a theory,” she says, pulling some files back towards her.

“Care to fill me in?” Bucky asks.

Sharon shakes her head, “no, I don’t want to give you a confirmation bias. Just read them and map out how the sightings play out.”

He considers arguing but he decides against it and shrugs. He picks up the stack of papers and starts going through them again, writing down how each sighting played out in jotted notes and when he breaks it down like that he sees it. “They have no intention of attack, they just want to be seen. They’re… they’re _teasing_ us,” he says in astonishment. Or at least that’s what it looked like to him. Of _course_. That’s what had been so off about these sightings- there were almost no attacks that resulted from them. The Strigoi were essentially making their presence known enough to try and… “are they trying to like… psych us out?” he asks.

“That’s a theory. I only noticed that there were almost no attacks from this and that the Strigoi must only want to be seen. But that explains _why_ they want to be seen- they’re sending a message. You can see us but you can’t do anything about it. Jesus _Christ_ Bucky, this is huge,” she says, shaking her head. “What the hell are we going to do?”

“We sure as hell aren’t going to give in to them. They want to undermine our abilities and they’re doing it by being spotted but not attacked and by slaughtering families. It’s an easy way to make us feel uncomfortable but we can’t lose our cool. We’ll make it out of this just fine,” Bucky says with far more confidence than he feels. “That, and we need to inform every guardian we can get ahold of about this.”

*

Loki was interesting and if it wasn’t for Tony watching him closely Tony would assume he had an ability to use compulsion like Tony. It turned out Loki was just a _very_ smooth talker and he had a reputation shrouded in mischief. He was Tony’s kind of guy and thankfully he was Loki’s kind of guy too. People were more than surprised when Loki attached himself to _Tony_ of all people because people didn’t forget about Howard even if they didn’t talk about him very much anymore. Loki claimed Tony’s backstory made him all the more interesting and Tony was happy to take it. Plus he noticed Bucky’s face when he walked by in the morning to find Loki’s hand lingering on Tony’s arm a little longer than strictly necessary and he hadn’t looked impressed.

 _Good_. Besides, Loki was genuinely interesting and his ability to work his element was impressive. Tony has always been jealous of elemental magic because he had none and being able to control an element was _cool_ okay? Earth wasn’t exactly his _favorite_ element but it was cool nonetheless and Loki knew all kinds of neat and probably forbidden spells he could work with the element. Tony was _enthused_ with this because illegal elemental spells and forgotten knowledge was totally up his ally. And Loki offered to show him where to _find_ all this information too and that was even better. If Tony did specialize in an element he supposed he could work on learning all sorts of neat and forgotten spells with it. Rhodey wouldn’t be impressed but he’d make sure Tony didn’t get caught.

Rhodey was far more skeptical, glaring at Loki as Tony leaned over a large ancient book that had a _wealth_ of information on elements that Tony never knew about. How Loki found it he had no idea and he wasn’t going to get picky with it either. He just wanted more of the knowledge. “So, how long are you staying?” Rhodey asks in an almost rude tone. Tony makes sure to send annoyed vibes at him because that was uncalled for. He notices, Tony sees it, but he ignores him.

“I’m a student here now, I transferred last week but I only made the move the day before yesterday,” Loki says smoothly. Tony gasps unintentionally when he finds something, earning looks from Loki and Rhodey. Rhodey turns his attention to Loki to glare at him when the arm he had draped over Tony’s chair drops to his waist but Tony barely notices.

“There’s a section on bonded guardians in here,” he says. Rhodey does a better job than him at maintaining a straight face.

“No sense in reading about fairy tales, Tony,” Rhodey says dismissively. Tony, because he knew him well, knew that Rhodey was trying to cover Tony’s excitement so no one suspected anything. No one aside from Pepper and Bucky knew about their bond and he guessed he didn’t think Loki should know either. He’d probably be pretty pissed if he knew about Bucky too so Tony keep that to himself. Well whatever, he’d read it and fill Rhodey in later because he knew he was interested.

“Let me know what it says- I rarely find anything on bonded guardians,” Loki says, smiling at Tony and _wow_ he had a pretty smile.

Tony can’t help but smile back, “will do. And send me anything else you find on this subject,” he adds. He didn’t need a two-way bond with Rhodey to know he wanted to kick Tony for saying that.

Loki raises an eyebrow, “you have quite the interest in the subject,” he notes.

“Nah, I just like forgotten things and this is a pretty hot topic as far as forgotten things go. People don’t have bonds with their guardians anymore but everyone still talks about them. Ergo its interesting,” Tony says, hoping that was a good cover. Rhodey doesn’t look so much like he wants to kick him so Tony figured it was a decent cover.

“Hmm,” Loki hums, mostly to himself rather than Tony. “What is your element anyways?” he asks.

 _Great_. That hadn’t come up yet and for some reason no one else mentioned it before. Sometimes, when people fell out of the habit of keeping their snide comments to themselves that Tony used compulsion to put them into, they used his lack of specialization as some kind of proof that he was a failure. “I uh… don’t have an element. Just some low control over all four,” he says. Like a fucking twelve year old, he thinks to himself. It annoyed him that he was still stuck in beginners classes when he was a senior.

Loki doesn’t say anything rude though, just raises an eyebrow. “That’s rare,” he notes, “seems like just about everything about you is unusual,” he says but he smiles slowly and his tone is warm, interested. Clearly he didn’t think Tony’s lack of specialization was some kind of moral failing and he wasn’t just saying that either, he could see the interest in Loki’s aura. And he didn’t start with some stupid ‘oh it’ll happen’ speech that Tony didn’t need.

“So they tell me,” Tony says dryly. It _used_ to be a good thing but now people used his strangeness as a reason to avoid him instead of flock to him. That was also due to his antisocial nature too, he was sure if he put effort into his social life people would still flock to him. They did when he made a point of talking to them but not if he didn’t, at least not like they used to.

Loki snorts, “if I listened to the way people talked about you I’d be missing out on someone far more interesting than most of the school’s population. That’d be a shame,” Loki tells him, grinning at him. Tony’s mood brightens considerably and Rhodey lets out a harsh laugh.

“Laying it on pretty thick there, aren’t you?” he asks in a rude tone.

“Rhodey!” Tony protests, shocked that he was acting this way.

“Oh come on Tony, you aren’t an idiot so why are you falling for this? He’s just telling you everything you want to hear,” Rhodey tells him, annoyed.

He wasn’t wrong, “but why would he even bother? What’s in it for him if he butters me up huh? My money? He has his own. My fame? I highly doubt _anyone_ wants my infamy, me included. My super secret elemental abilities that don’t exist? Sure, clearly that’s what he’s after. Why bother buttering me up with no payoff?” he asks.

“You _do_ know I’m right here, right?” Loki asks dryly.

“Yeah I’m aware that you’re right there, I wish you weren’t. And I don’t know what he wants Tony, but he clearly has some kind of agenda,” Rhodey says.

“Of course he does, why else would he take an interest in me? Obviously that’s the only reason anyone would spend any kind of time with me,” he snaps, standing up. “You know considering you’re supposed to be my best friend you _suck_ at it,” Tony tells Rhodey and he leaves the library. He kicks himself when he gets to the hallway because he forgot that damn book but he figured if he was lucky Loki would bring it to him. If he wasn’t pissed at Rhodey he’d assume that Rhodey would get it to him but no, Rhodey figured Loki only hung out with Tony because he had some kind of sinister master plan.

He rolls his eyes because he didn’t _have_ anything Loki could want.

*

Bucky knew he had no god damn right to be pissed off- he _told_ Tony to date someone his own age- but he _was_. Maybe it was because that Loki kid was obviously up to something and given the warnings that the guardians had gotten about him he wasn’t wrong for thinking he was a slimy little bastard.

Jesus Christ he was calling a seventeen year old names in his head because of some bizarre and kind of gross attraction to another seventeen year old. What the hell was _wrong_ with him? There was no excuse for this and yet every time he saw Loki look at Tony he wanted to punch the kid in the head. He’s killed Strigoi, punching a Moroi kid wouldn’t be an issue but he ignores those thoughts because they were _absurd_. There was no way he was risking his ass because he had a stupid crush on a child and some other child also had a crush on that child. He was supposed to be the adult here and besides, he had _far_ more pressing matters.

“May is going to be here soon. Think Bobbi and Lance will have anything useful?” Sharon asks. He god damn hoped so. They were good- _very_ good and he hoped that they saw something in the information he and Sharon sent off to them. May was coming to pick them up so they could meet Bobbi and Lance at their Moroi’s house. They trained under May, who was almost as legendary as Peggy, and Sharon suggested talking to them before Peggy. He agreed because their opinion was useful and it would help make a case to Peggy and the other guardians.

“I guess we’ll see,” Bucky says as he watches Tony walk across the courtyard area with Loki.

“I can’t believe they let him _in_ here, have you seen his record? Guess money really does buy immunity to everything,” Sharon says, rolling her eyes.

“I haven’t, but I’ve heard the stories.” None of them were very good as far as character references went and he itches to pull Tony away but he doesn’t.

“And that’s not even considering the rumors. Know about his brother Thor?” Sharon asks. Bucky turns to her because he hadn’t and he felt strangely vindicated that he was probably right about that little bastard. “I’ll take that as a no. Rumor has it Loki tried to kill him but Thor’s a Dhampir so that went terribly,” she says.

That’s about when the name ‘Thor’ rings a bell. It hadn’t before because Moroi, if they had Dhampir siblings, didn’t associate with them. Moroi men were typically the love ‘em and leave ‘em type and Dhampir women got to deal with the fallout. “You mean that guy that’s off in Europe that took out Malekith?” he asks. The Strigoi was old enough to be all over several guardian records and he was _powerful_. The more Moroi blood a Strigoi drank the stronger they got and he was ancient. Thor had earned a reputation for being the one who took him out but from Bucky’s general knowledge Thor put it down to dumb luck. “He’s related to Loki?” he asks. If he remembered Thor’s face right he couldn’t see the relation at all.

“Yes that’s the Thor and he’s better than he likes to admit. And no, technically he’s not related to Loki. Thor’s adopted,” Sharon says. Bucky frowns at Sharon and she nods in understanding. “I know, right? Moroi don’t adopt Dhampirs but here we are. According to the rumor mill Loki’s jealous that people like Thor better. Its not hard to see why, he’s a slimy little git,” Sharon says, narrowing her eyes at him as he and Tony disappear around a corner.

Bucky raises an eye at the British term, wondering how much time she spent with Peggy when she wasn’t pretending she had no relation to Peggy. He’d ask some more questions about Loki and the rumor origins but May shows up and they have places to be after that. Besides, he shouldn’t be gossiping like he was in high school about a bunch of stories that were probably just that. He’s an adult and he should act like one instead of being jealous of Loki for no reason.

The drive to Bobbi and Lance’s Moroi’s house wasn’t far, maybe forty-five minutes and May spends the whole time questioning them on their theories. They fill her in as best as possible and start trying to come up any holes in their theory as well as explanations before they got to their destination. May, thankfully, thought their conclusions had merit but she wanted second opinions too so that’s why they were here.

The house looks quiet when they pull up, “I hope they’re home. It took me three hours to get to you guys and I will kick someone’s ass if they aren’t here,” May mumbles as she gets out. It isn’t until they get to the front door that they notice it was barely shut and that it had obviously been busted in. Immediately they all go on guard and May gestures for them to go in while she circled around to the back. In daylight Strigoi being there was unlikely but it was good to be cautious.

He and Sharon slowly push in with their stakes out, Sharon following up on Bucky’s left side to cover him as best as possible. They both notice the smell immediately and cough a little but press on until they find the Moroi who lived there and a few guests. And Lance. May meets them, having come into the room on the other side after entering the back door.

“Shit,” she mumbles, looking around until her eyes widen when she sees something across the room. Sharon and Bucky follow her line of sight and Bucky almost faints. It’s only Sharon that manages to keep him upright.

It wasn’t until Bucky saw it that he remembered Bobbi and Lance guarded a Rogers, one that was most likely closely related to Steve. There weren’t that many left, the chance of the Rogers here being a distant relative of Steve’s was slim to none. The Strigoi knew it too because across the wall in the Moroi’s blood they wrote ‘till the end of the line’. He had no idea how the Strigoi knew about the phrase he and Steve used to use all the time and he didn’t really care. The double meaning was more than a little chilling.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning for some minor descriptions of violence.

Tony managed to sleep well the night before, something of a shocker, and he even managed to remember to go to the feeders before he was starved for blood. He’s on his way back to his dorm to grab his school supplies and wondering why he didn’t sleep like a normal person more often given how nice he felt when he feels something. He isn’t entirely sure why he looks over but he catches the snippet of an aura, a little flicker of black and he frowns. The only time he ever saw black in an aura was Rhodey’s, which was mostly black with a little bit of color, or if someone had a nasty mental health problem. He saw the former more than the latter because most people’s problems showed up as grey or brown spots that flickered in and out, black rarely presented in people’s auras. Actually the first time he ever saw the color in an aura was after Howard had been killed- his mom’s aura had black all over it for months.

PTSD Peggy had called it and after some time in therapy the black faded to brown and most days he didn’t notice anything wrong with his mom’s aura. The little flicker of black appears again and Tony frowns, wondering if Rhodey was getting weirdly protective again and trying to uselessly guard him when they were in a school of guardians. He doubted it, Rhodey wasn’t a morning person, but the bond only went one way so who knew. The answer, he figured, was to check it out.

“Rhodey, stop stalking me, it’s weird and that attack is basically old news,” Tony says as he walks between the buildings to the flickers he had seen to confront his friend but he doesn’t find Rhodey there. “Bucky?” he asks, frowning. He’s sitting on a box outside the building and his eyes are rimmed with red and he looks like hell, “Jesus, what happened?” he asks. He reaches out almost on instinct but he drops his hand because this wasn’t the kind of wound he could heal, at least he thinks. Hmm.

“That attack is old news because there’s been another,” Bucky says softly. Tony’s heart squeezes and he takes a deep breath. _Oh_ , that wasn’t good. Three attacks have happened, two in very quick succession. Fuck.

“Okay,” he says slowly, “I understand that this is awful but why do you look like you’ve been crying?” He hadn’t seemed that affected by the last attack, at least no more than the other guardians. He had been shaken but not broken like he was now. The black that Tony saw in his aura kept eclipsing the rest of the colors but what was left was a kind of sadness Tony has never seen before. Bucky was not handling this well and there had to be a reason.

“The Moroi I used to guard, he was a Rogers and that’s the family that was attacked this time,” Bucky says.

Tony winces again, “I’m sorry,” he says genuinely.

Bucky shakes his head, “I didn’t know them all that well, Steve never liked playing Royal games but… but the Strigoi… I don’t know how they knew about it but Steve and I used to say something to each other. We’d been friends since grade school and we always thought… well we always thought we’d be together. We used to say ‘till the end of the line’ to each other as some kind of sign that we’d always be there for each other. Well, the Strigoi somehow knew about it because they wrote it in blood on the Moroi’s wall.”

Tony resists the urge to throw up because that was _awful_ and the double meaning was more than a little creepy. “I am so sorry,” Tony says, reaching out to Bucky. He doesn’t even realize he’s called the magic until he can feel it flowing into Bucky and amazingly he can see the black in Bucky’s aura lighten some. Bucky, to Tony’s surprise, leans into him, pressing his face to Tony’s stomach and just sitting there like that for a long few moments. Tony lets the magic flow between them, reveling in the warm, tingly feeling the magic had. It felt like life, joy, warmth, and love and he always loved using it, it was the way he felt after that he wasn’t fond of.

Bucky aura gets progressively lighter and Tony runs his hands through his soft hair. It looked just as nice down as it did up. They sit there like that for a long time before Bucky eventually pulls back and Tony lets the magic fall away. “Thank you,” Bucky says, “I feel… a lot better actually.”

“I think… I think I healed some of the dark spots in your aura,” he says, “I’m not sure though, I don’t know how it works.” He felt tired but that wasn’t much of a surprise given that he’s never really done this kind of thing before.

“You can do that?” Bucky asks.

“I don’t know, I guess. I… I don’t usually run into mental health issues that show in the aura so I’ve never healed them before. I’ve only ever healed physical wounds but I could feel the magic and your aura got lighter. I think that means I did something but I don’t know if it was healing or some other thing. Um, sorry,” he adds when he remembers that he didn’t really have permission to do that. Most people wouldn’t care if it was physical but people were a lot more sensitive with their minds.

“No, no its… thank you. I needed that. I don’t usually get like this, I haven’t had a bad day in a long time but-” Bucky stops and Tony can _see_ the spike in the black spots in his aura. Shit that was both bad and weird. The darkness wasn’t even remotely as bad as it was but it was enough that Tony reaches out, magic at the ready and Bucky calms as soon as Tony touches him.

“Hey, it happens and I think given the circumstances you have more than a right to be upset and all that. Anyone would have been freaked out hearing of another attack but being personally targeted? That’s worse.” Especially when he didn’t get the option of death but Tony doesn’t say that, he doesn’t need to. Bucky knows.

*

Rhodey finds him as he heads to breakfast. “Hey, who did you heal this morning?” he asks in a low voice. Damnit, Tony should have known Rhodey would feel that.

“Bucky,” he answers because there was no sense in lying. Tony had some theories he wanted to test on Rhodey now and if he’d be found out as soon as he shared his theories anyways. Might as well be up front.

“Bucky? What happened to him?” Rhodey asks and it occurs to Tony that the news hadn’t been spread to the students yet. Oh damn. He looks around and Rhodey looks confused.

“I’m looking for Pepper because I’ve uh… got some news and I don’t feel like repeating myself,” he says. Rhodey knows right away, of course he does, but they wait for Pepper anyways and Tony drags them off to a quiet corner so they can talk in peace.

Pepper looks at him and Rhodey in question because Tony looked upset and Rhodey was steeling himself for Tony’s words. He probably would have noticed earlier but he had focused on feeling Tony’s strange magic flare up- he could feel it through the bond- but he probably felt the turmoil of feelings before that. He just happened to place more importance on Tony’s magic. “There’s been another attack,” Tony says and Rhodey looks devastated. Pepper hides it better than he does but Tony could see the flare of panic in her aura, and the flare of sadness and shock. “They uh… left another message and this time I got what it was. They went for Rogers this time and left ‘till the end of the line’ in the wall in their blood,” he says.

Rhodey looks out and out disgusted and Pepper turns the same shade of green her aura was. “That is _disgusting_ ,” Rhodey says fiercely.

So it was but what’s done is done. Tony doesn’t bother telling them about the double meaning of the words, how it targeted Bucky specifically because that wasn’t relevant. Bucky was a big boy and he was more than well trained, he could take care of himself. It was Moroi that were vulnerable here. “What exactly are we gong to do?” Pepper asks softly. She had to be feeling the heat more than Tony was. Rhodey really would go to the ends of the earth to stay by his side but Pepper? She was as good as defenseless.

“I take it you heard news of the attack then?” a new, smooth voice adds. Tony turns to find Loki sauntering over to them. He can feel Rhodey’s irritation with this, he didn’t need a bond for that, but he had no idea why Rhodey hated him so much. Tony liked him alright and after the last time he protested to Loki’s presence Rhodey seemed to know to keep his opinion to himself. It hadn’t exactly gone well for him.

Loki drops gracefully into a seat beside Tony and drapes his arm over the back of his chair. He doesn’t show it on his face but Tony is pleased with this. He’s always liked attention and he rarely got this kind of attention these days, it was nice to have a small piece of his old life back. “You know Moroi used to fight with guardians, right? Never knew why they stopped, as soon as they did Strigoi numbers quadrupled,” Loki says casually. He saw interest spike in Pepper’s aura and he didn’t need to see his own to know the same happened to him, not that he could see his own aura. There was the pesky problem of Moroi only ever using their magic for ‘good’ but Tony has seen the results of Moroi fighting back. It was the only reason he was alive right now.

“Don’t you dare get ideas, you haven’t even specialized in anything,” Rhodey tells him, “and earth is hardly a useful element to take on Strigoi,” he tells Pepper.

“Well she could drop a large rock on one, it wouldn’t kill it but it wouldn’t be pleasant either,” Loki says, shrugging in that strange cool, uncaring way of his.

“Plus dirt in the eyes is never fun, I’ve accidentally done it to myself enough times to know,” Pepper says in her own defense. “Besides, it’s better than what I’ve got now. I’d rather throw a rock or two to distract a Strigoi than become a meal for one.”

Tony felt similarly but there wasn’t much he could do against a Strigoi. If his attacker was a Moroi or a Dhampir than he could compel them to fuck off but Strigoi? Nothing. That he knew of anyways. If only he’d adopted his parent’s elements. Howard had had fire too and instead Tony got lame shit like seeing auras. What the hell kind of use was that?

“I hate to burst you bubble Pep, but Strigoi are fast. You’re going to have to do more to it than throw some dirt on it,” Rhodey says and Tony can’t help the little bubble of laughter that comes out of his mouth. All he could imagine was Pepper throwing dirt on Howard and that was kind of amusing until he considers what happens after… Everyone, Loki included, gives him a strange look but he ignores them.

“Fine, I’ll find some other way to avoid being eaten,” Pepper tells him primly, nose in the air. Tony didn’t blame her, being without a guardian made her particularly vulnerable even if she had no knowledge on how to use her element as a weapon. But his mom had done it and she was successful, in theory the idea would work. He doubted the Royals would go for it though; they were more fond of cowering.

“I know a few tricks with earth, I could teach you,” Loki offers and Pepper brightens.

“See? Loki knows things about earth and he’ll teach me,” Pepper says in a taunting but teasing tone. She agrees easily but she doesn’t notice the dark look that crosses Rhodey’s face. What was _with_ him?

*

It had been stupid to let Tony heal him in any capacity- he didn’t even know what that _was_ and neither did Tony. But when he had come over to him behind those buildings Bucky just… he needed someone to talk to and Tony had listened better than most. In his line of work losing people was part of the job and yes, it was hard, but you moved on. Wallowing was more than a little frowned upon and he had already taken too much time for Steve. Then Tony came over and he was sympathetic and soft, sweet even and whatever that magic was it felt nice to be touched by it. It almost felt like Tony gave him a bit of energy when he touched him- he could feel the heat of Tony’s hand or maybe that had been that pesky attraction he still hadn’t rid himself of.

Regardless it had been nice to be comforted for once, to be allowed to express a little emotion and get some sympathy for it. It’s been a long, _long_ time since anyone pet his hair, probably since before he left home years ago and it was nice to relax into it. What wasn’t so nice was that god damn Loki kid showering Tony with attention only to watch him eat it up. There was something off there, he had an agenda, Bucky could feel it but he had no proof.

“Still keeping an eye on that one, hmm? Probably not a bad idea but he seems to be adjusting well here. He even managed to draw Tony out of his shell and that isn’t easy since Howard,” Sharon says, not quite catching him off guard.

“You know Tony?” he asks, surprised though maybe he shouldn’t be. Sharon did say she was related to Peggy and she was good friends with Maria.

She snorts, “my aunt is a family friend, of course I know Tony. Not well mind you but that was mostly because I chose to distance myself from Peggy as I got older,” she says. Bucky supposed he understood why but Peggy was the best, why not train under her? When he asks this Sharon sighs. “Because then people would expect me to _be_ her. But I will never be my aunt Peggy and I didn’t want to live with the weight of everyone expecting me to be like her. Distancing myself from her reputation gave me an opportunity to make one of my own that didn’t ride on hers,” she says.

That was strange to hear for Bucky considering his own reputation was only boosted by his training under Peggy. “Well it worked, you’ve created a buzz in the guardian world on your own,” he says. She had an interesting career because unlike most guardians she hadn’t ended up assigned to a Moroi leaving school- she had ended up doing a bunch of freelance work until she had been assigned to a family, but not a specific member. Then she had created quite a lot of buzz when she managed take on three Strigoi at once and win, plus killing off a fourth some other guardian in her group was struggling with. If fighting was in DNA Sharon certainly got her fight from her aunt.

“And that’s the way I wanted it to be. I didn’t want people to expect things out of me because I’m Peggy Carter’s niece, I want people to expect things from be because I’m Sharon Carter. It worked at least, even if aunt Peggy was a little wounded.”

Bucky laughs, yeah he could guess Peggy wasn’t happy with that because she was the fiercely protective type and she was also stubborn. She’d insist Sharon could get what she wanted Peggy’s way and she’d be wrong. No one would ever look at Sharon through her own skillset until Peggy wasn’t around to be a legend anymore and Peggy wasn’t about to go down without a fight. “Well she’s recovered now,” Bucky points out.

Sharon smiles, “it took some convincing but she came around. Honestly I can’t believe she’s still fighting at her age. I think I’d be dead,” Sharon says.

“Peggy will fight until she dies I swear, even if it isn’t Strigoi she’s fighting with,” Bucky says. She might be pushing sixty but she was far more fierce than guardians far younger than her, Bucky knew. He remembered her in more of her youth when he had been her student and he remembered how scary she had seemed then. He imagined she still had that fear on her side with the Strigoi but now Bucky knew she was only a woman, not some kind of scary legend.

“Very true,” Sharon says, “she seems to think the same of you despite the evidence that suggests you might be better off retiring early. You’ve earned her respect and trust me when I say that isn’t easy.”

He knew it wasn’t easy, it took him six years to do it but half of that time was spent with Peggy reprimanding him for being a reckless fool. To be fair he eventually started to listen and when he did Peggy made damn sure he had no room to do anything but improve. He had always been one of her favorites but he had no idea why. “I know, not that I know why. I’ve never really been the kind of student she prefers- she usually likes them like Rhodey. Dedicated and driven. I’ve never really been that,” he says honestly.

Sharon raises an eyebrow, “are you sure? Because Peggy thinks differently. She seems to think your motivations are a bit more… focused, I suppose. She thinks you need some other Moroi to save,” she says. She looks across to courtyard to Tony, who was now laughing at something Loki said, head thrown back and all. Bucky feels irrationally jealous about this.

“I don’t need or want another Moroi,” he says. “And no one would waste a guardian on a Stark so closely related to Howard. Maria’s guardians got pulled; you know that and so does she. And he had Rhodey anyways, there is _no way_ he’d let me take his place.” He wasn’t sure if that’s what she was alluding to but it didn’t really matter either way.

“Peggy can pull strings and you know it. And Maria is well liked, always has been and she’s done a damn good job inching her way back into Royal society. God knows how but I’ve met Maria, she’s a formidable woman. I’ve got no clue why or even _how_ Howard ever treated her the way he did let alone how it lasted so long. I wouldn’t chance it with Maria and I’d take her down easily. Besides, Royals always get two guardians, you know that and so does Rhodey. She thinks you’d be compatible and honestly I don’t need an abundance of knowledge on Tony to know that’s impressive. He’s feisty and he doesn’t like people taking care of him but you have experience with that,” she says.

Bucky squints at her, not sure why she’s trying to talk him into this. Something niggles at the back of his mind though, wondering if he’d ever take the offer if he had it. Tony… well he could use the protection even if it would probably be mostly from himself. But if he was around Tony all the time… that could be dangerous in the best- no _worst_ \- of ways. He shouldn’t be spending any unnecessary time with Tony at all.

“Think about it,” Sharon says to him and to his intense surprise she winks at him and walks off. He frowns; trying to remember if any of that conversation they had could count as flirting. Tony’s loud laughter draws his attention away from Sharon though and Loki is making him laugh again. He glares at the kid, annoyed with his presence and that annoyance only grows when he wraps an arm around Tony’s waist.

They start walking off together and Tony surprises him by looking back and he has this _look_ on his face, like he knows he’s made Bucky jealous and he’s doing it on purpose. It’s so… so… _high school_ but it pisses him off that it was working.


	12. Chapter 12

Tony pours over the book Loki gave him that talks about ‘shadow kissed’ guardians. That was the term for bonds apparently and that made Tony’s researching terms that much easier. Thankfully someone thought to digitize old records some time ago and he fully planned on reading everything he could find on the term shadow kissed. So far he’s learned nothing new really, the guardians in the stories had special connections to their Moroi, could sense when they were in trouble, were close friends to the Moroi, blah, blah. None of the information was new and that pissed him off. This book was supposed to give him something useful, like explaining how these bonds even formed.

It may have been wishful thinking but he wanted the book to lay out exactly what the bond was, how it worked, how it formed, and maybe even how or if they could be broken. Mostly Tony wanted to know if these ancient books had any information on what the bonds did to the person who felt the Moroi’s emotions and all that and if they made any mention of his strange brand of magic. The best he got so far though was some religious nut named Vladimir and he was known as a saint and could heal people with his religious beliefs. Tony had less than zero faith in faith healers because they were a bunch of scam artists looking for a quick cash grab so all that information on his ‘healing spirit’ and his shadow kissed guardian Anna was fucking useless. The only interesting clue there was that Vlad had supposedly saved Anna’s life once and that Tony knew well. Except the dude was a faith healer, not an actual healer so he probably did something stupid like gave her bread or something so she didn’t starve.

“Somebody looks grumpy,” Loki says, causing Tony to jump a little in his seat. Loki just smiles at him and Tony relaxes a little, allowing himself to feel pleased with the attention he was getting. As it turned out hanging out with Loki increased his status at the school because people liked Loki due to that charismatic and somewhat chaotic nature of his. Tony didn’t blame them- Loki is hot and he had a way of making you feel special when he looked at you.

“Do I?” Tony asks, grinning at him and hoping he doesn’t ask about the subject matter. Rhodey already spent a bunch of time kicking him under tables for giving information up and Tony resented that. He had no idea why Rhodey disliked Loki so much, everyone else liked him too so how come he was the only one being kicked? Hell, even Pepper didn’t mind him.

“You do. So what has you so frustrated?” Loki asks, walking up behind Tony and gently kneading at his shoulders. It feels pleasant enough but when Tony spots Bucky looking his way he leans into Loki’s touch, smiling blissfully in a way that Loki’s massage really didn’t deserve. It has the added benefit of lifting Loki’s ego- Tony could see it in his aura- so he doesn’t care. Especially not when Bucky looks like a storm cloud just flew over his face. _Good_.

“Shadow kissed guardians,” Tony says, figuring he’d give the bare minimum on his research topic as to not piss Rhodey off. He stopped acting like Loki had some ulterior motive for hanging around Tony since that blowout they had over the subject but he certainly didn’t act warm and fuzzy towards him.

“Shadow what guardians? Why has that got you annoyed?” Loki asks, frowning down at him.

“I’ve heard all the stories and all that but I want to know how it all works. None of this is giving me any more than the urban legends have,” he says, gesturing at the offending book.

“Probably because bonds are an urban legend. You should focus your efforts elsewhere,” Loki tells him dismissively. Tony frowns because that was unusual behavior for Loki but he also didn’t care so much that he wanted to look into it.

“What do you suggest I research?” he asks more out of courtesy than anything.

“Strigoi,” Loki says and Tony looks up at him, wrinkling his nose. “What? We’re supposed to hate them and all that but we barely even know how they work,” he points out.

“Who cares how they work, they’re evil and gross,” Tony snaps, remembering the red in Howard’s eyes as he eyed him up like _dinner_. Like hell he was looking that up. He knew what he needed to about Strigoi- they were evil and how to kill them.

“Hmm. I just figured with the strange magic that seems to surround them, and well… your history you might want to know exactly what happened there,” Loki says. It’s the first time he’s ever brought Howard up and he didn’t even mention him by name. Tony would give him bonus points but bonus points only go to those that don’t mention Howard at all, so Bucky, Rhodey, and Pepper.

“I don’t _care_ what happened. There’s nothing there for me to learn and I don’t need rumors about me turning Strigoi flying around if someone sees my search results in the databases,” he says. He’s still pissed that they have _databases_ but no cell phones. He’s been personally targeted; he’s sure, by this grave injustice. The _guardians_ got cell phones. Maybe he could steal Bucky’s if he had one.

“Then research during the day, no one but you is up at that time anyways,” Loki points out. Tony frowns, wondering how he knew that but Loki shrugs. “I notice how tired you look a lot of the time and I know it isn’t because you accidentally skip your time with feeders because I’ve been going with you every morning for the last week.”

Right, he supposed that was true but something about Loki knowing that made his stomach twist. He ignores that though because it was completely unnecessary and unfounded. “Do your own research on Strigoi if you’re so curious,” Tony tells him, nose in the air.

Loki laughs and it’s a pleasant, soft sound. “So I will. What else have you been looking up?” Loki asks, picking up a book on elemental magic. The thing was absolutely ancient but Tony figured if he was going to find anything on his strange brand of magic it would be in an ancient text. Magic was freer then, and more discussed. Magic now was basically a bunch of parlor tricks when, back when Moroi used magic all the time, it could be used to top natural disasters. Humans used to worship them as gods, bringing them sacrifices and everything though it was usually food, not dead bodies like the human imagination liked to assume. Well, feeders he supposed were sort of human sacrifices but that wasn’t the same as out and out killing someone for them. But none of that kind of thing happened now.

“Offensive magic,” Tony tells Loki, lying for some reason. Maybe Rhodey’s ridiculous paranoia was rubbing off on him or something, or his stupid bond was starting to go both ways. At least he’d get to treat Rhodey to how it felt when his best friend slipped into his head while masturbating. Take _that_ Rhodey. “The most surprising thing I’ve found was that Moroi used to fight _with_ guardians, even the Royals.” Now that was a big no-no though Pepper has taken an interest in the subject recently and she had even asked Loki for advice. So that paranoia he felt suddenly around him was obviously just his gut running wild.

“You didn’t know that? I thought that’d be in the book you were reading,” he says, nodding at Tony’s text. Maybe it was, he didn’t know, he was more interested in that whole ‘shadow kissed’ thing.

“No, I didn’t. I only read the section on being shadow kissed though and it didn’t even state how the damn bonds are _formed_ ,” he says, frustrated. Loki sits down beside him, leaning into Tony’s personal space and flipping the pages as he skimmed them.

“Huh. You’re right, this doesn’t say much at all… all it does it mention some crazy saint who had a shadow kissed guardian,” he says.

So Tony knew and given that he was no saint he sure as hell wasn’t healing people with the Holy Spirit. And that wasn’t even considering his being an atheist.

*

Rhodey isn’t entirely sure if Tony notices his moods changing but he notices. The first clue was his sudden paranoia with Loki, but he also knows Tony is sleeping less too. He was spending time researching what the hell ‘shadow kissed’ meant instead. Rhodey appreciated the work Tony was putting into figuring out what exactly happened between them but he was pushing himself to his limits and Rhodey… well he had no idea how to deal with that. If he tried to talk to Tony in this state he knew what would happen because he’s done this before.

Tony would get snappy and defensive and he’d refuse to speak to Rhodey, sort of like he did the last time he criticized Loki’s odd interest in him. Except he wouldn’t be over it the next day, Rhodey knew, because his mood was darker than usual. If only he knew _why_ that was. As useful as the bond could be it was damn useless when it mattered. He needed to figure out some way to get Tony out of this damn funk but he had no idea how to go about it. It was hardly like Pepper would have any ideas and Rhodey didn’t even know if Maria knew about his bond with Tony and even if she did he didn’t know if she’d be helpful either.

In the end he does the only thing he can think of to try and see exactly where Tony was mentally. It takes time but eventually slowing his breathing and focusing on Tony’s feelings works and he slips into Tony’s head. At the moment he was in the library looking over some old documents on a dusty old computer that was pissing him off almost more than the content of the articles he was reading. Nothing gave him any information on being ‘shadow kissed’ and it seemed to be affecting him more than normal. Usually Tony wasn’t deterred by not finding information, actually he usually preferred it because he was a freak and he _liked_ research.

Now, though, he was on the verge of tears and Tony wasn’t the crying type. What the _hell_? He leaves Tony’s surface thoughts alone for a moment and tries to see if he can feel anything… underneath that or something. It doesn’t take long to feel the dark, sticky feeling hanging over Tony’s thoughts but as quickly as he finds it it’s gone, which was more than a little frustrating. He was just trying to help here and the damn feeling he located was _gone_ now.

Tony’s mood, though, lightens some and he just feels tired. As annoyed as Rhodey was he was happy that Tony decides to call it quits with his research and he goes back to his dorm so he could sleep a little before class.

*

The Strigoi sightings usually increased after an attack but this time there was nothing and it made Bucky uneasy. It occurred to him as well as Sharon and May that this was the point. They had _just_ established something of a pattern and now it was gone again. It was designed, they think, to make them uncomfortable but this made their observations of Strigoi sightings harder to prove. All they had was a feeling and those weren’t acceptable even if they were right.

“This is fucking frustrating,” Sharon says, shaking her head. Bucky agreed but what were they realistically supposed to do about this?

“There has to be something we missed,” May says, pulling a couple files towards herself.

“We didn’t miss anything,” Bucky says and both May and Sharon go to state otherwise but he puts his hand up. “I’m not saying something is missing, I’m saying we didn’t miss anything. We obviously don’t have all the information, there’s too many things that don’t fit.”

“Like?” May prompts but it isn’t a challenge. She’s just trying to see how he’s seeing things and he can appreciate that. Sharon leans forward in interest too and Bucky starts mentally gathering all the strange information.

“One, the attacks are somewhat inconsistent. The first attack was planned but not extremely unusual. It’s not like we’ve never seen Strigoi team up in somewhat large groups to attack Moroi before. And those kinds of things were becoming more popular at that point, but the last two attacks? Hyper-organized, whoever planned them not only knows Moroi well, but they know Dhampirs and guardian training _just_ as well. This person clearly had contingency plans and the goal was more than just eating Moroi. Then there’s the weirdness of targeting _me_ specifically. And how the hell Strigoi knew anything about my relationship with Steve. Then there’s the now inconsistencies of Strigoi sightings after attacks. Too much is left to the imagination here,” he says.

Sharon and May nod along with him, taking in the information and analyzing it themselves. “We agreed that after the first attack someone else must have taken over as the Strigoi’s leader,” Sharon points out.

“But we never established why they had a leader to begin with _or_ what their motivation was, if they even had one,” Bucky says. It was obvious someone new was in charge but it wasn’t so obvious why there was a group formed to begin with. Strigoi didn’t get along with each other, they were too self-centered and cruel to deal with each other for very long. Before now the changes of seeing groups of Strigoi were slim and the numbers never exceeded five. The last attack would have needed at _least_ nine Strigoi to pull it off, and the same with the last. The groups were far larger and organized enough to strongly support the theory that the large group was part of an even larger group of Strigoi. That was not just strange and unusual, it was flat out unprecedented.

“He’s right,” May says, “we don’t even know for sure what their motive is now. Targeting you specifically though, that could be because you’re famous enough in the guardian world that rattling you would rattle us.”

Sharon is shaking her head before May even finishes though so Bucky leaves her to protest that point. “I don’t think so. Not that Bucky doesn’t make a good target for the reasons you mentioned, but guardians aren’t easily shaken. Actually none of us have actually been particularly shaken by these events, shocked and horrified sure, but shaken? It’s contrary to years’ worth of conditioning for us to be shaken. I think this is to freak Moroi out more than they already are. I mean come on, they killed one of our best guardian’s dead charge’s family- one that’s close to being wiped out completely might I add- and they targeted him _personally_ not just somewhat indirectly. If they can come at Bucky theoretically no one is safe.”

That was good, Bucky had to admit, and it fit. Moroi _were_ particularly upset about the attack and only a few select Moroi knew all the details but Bucky seen their faces. They were more terrified than Bucky had been. Actually he hadn’t been terrified at all, he’d been grief stricken, which supported Sharon’s theory. He wasn’t trained to be scared and when he was he’s had years worth of experience and training that taught him how to get through it.

“That fits, alright. But there has to be something more to this than terrifying Moroi. Sure that’s a great bonus to all of this but there has to be something more to it than that,” May says.

Bucky was inclined to agree but he wasn’t comfortable with jumping to conclusions more than they already were and Sharon agreed. They needed more evidence but more evidence meant more deaths and no one wanted that. They were stuck now and none of them liked it much.

“Wait,” Sharon says after a few moments. “I really don’t mean to be um… insensitive but Peggy mentioned some students she had when you were in school. Aren’t they uh…” she trails off, being surprisingly tactful for a guardian.

“Strigoi,” Bucky finishes for her. “Yeah, they are but why is that- oh,” he says, seeing her connection. May raises an eyebrow, obviously not following here.

“The Strigoi know Moroi and guardians well, and they know me personally. Because they’re probably my old friends from school. God, I hope they don’t still call themselves the Howling Commandos.” He feels queasy, but that’s less because he hadn’t thought of his friends living that horrible, undead life and more because it was possible that one of them killed Steve.

May looks away awkwardly, “we don’t know that for sure. It’s a good guess though if we want to explain the details from your personal life but anyone close enough to you would have known about that phrase. It could be anyone really,” she says somewhat gruffly. He’s surprised by her sensitivity to the subject too but he doesn’t question it.

“Maybe,” Bucky says though he doesn’t believe it. “Either way I think we might be looking at some Dhampirs-turned-Strigoi being involved. They know too much about guardian practices for comfort.” Moroi could chose to turn Strigoi by killing someone, but Strigoi could also be made by draining a victim of blood and feeding them Strigoi blood. This method could be used to turn humans too but usually Strigoi left humans be because of the preference for Moroi blood. His guess was that a few guardians had been turned this way as well as Moroi and now they were using the knowledge of their society to their advantage.

Eventually they decide to disperse and Bucky is happy for it because he needed to clear his head. He’s headed back to the guardian’s part of campus when he runs into Tony. “You look better,” he notes. Despite it being early by Moroi standards it wasn’t mid-day and sunny and Tony looked like he actually got some sleep.

Tony smiles, “sure I’m better, I feel better. I… well I had a couple bad days earlier in the week but I guess it passed. How’ve you been?” Tony asks, leaning casually against a tree. Something tells Bucky he’s trying to gauge his reaction to his efforts to piss him off with that Loki kid. He was sure he could read Bucky’s aura or however that worked so he decides to answer the question differently.

“I’d be better if I could figure out what the hell Strigoi were doing,” he says honestly. It was genuinely irritating him that Strigoi were so efficiently taking out guardians and Moroi alike with seemingly no motivation aside from terror. There had to be some kind of goal here.

“Causing problems, do they really do anything else?” Tony says simply.

“They must be with the way things have been going lately but we can’t figure out what it is that they want…”

“Maybe you’re overthinking it,” Tony says, “I mean in the human world when people do stuff like this they want to scare people and recruit people to their cause to scare people. Usually they’re drawn in by something and immortality is a pretty good motivator for humans to join up. So they all managed to not kill each other long enough to get really excited about killing Moroi and they use humans as a vehicle to do that. What other motivation could they have?” he asks.

It could be that easy yes, but if it wasn’t they needed to know. “And if that’s wrong?” Bucky asks.

“If it’s wrong it’ll become increasingly obvious,” Tony says and he shudders despite the air being unseasonably warm today.

“Guess so,” Bucky murmurs. With that he goes to go around Tony but he stops him.

“Hey, when I healed you that day, how’ve you been since then?” he asks.

He’s tempted to tell Tony to leave it alone, that he wasn’t any of Tony’s concern but that was only because of his own guilt for being attracted to him to begin with. His question was open and honest, he obviously wanted answers on how his strange brand of magic worked. “Good,” he says, “actually better than I’ve been since…” his voice unexpectedly cuts out on him and Tony squeezes his arm.

“You shouldn’t feel guilty for being happy without him. I don’t think he’d want you to be miserable just because he’s gone,” Tony says softly.

No, Steve wouldn’t but that didn’t stop him from feeling bad that his bad days were significantly less bad and they happened less often. They were doing that even before Tony healed him but now that usual dread, anxiety, and guilt that usually plagued him whenever he saw or heard something that reminded him of Steve was almost gone. He’d expect to feel it but it didn’t come and he wasn’t sure he knew how to live without that gut wrenching feeling dictating his life.

“I… I don’t even know if I _can_ be happy without him. I’ve never really had to do that,” Bucky says honestly.

Tony smiles sympathetically, head tilted to the side. He’s stunning, far more so than most of his gawky peers and it’s easy to forget his age, or maybe that’s just what Bucky was telling himself to make himself feel better. “Take it from someone who would be in Steve’s shoes. If I died for whatever reason I would want Rhodey to have a full, happy, and healthy life. We aren’t supposed to be all you have but somehow that got screwed up along the way. So go out and find things that make you happy, learn to live your life without Steve being the center of it,” Tony says.

It was good advice, if he were a Moroi. But he isn’t, he’s a Dhampir and they dedicate their lives to Moroi. They don’t get to live lives in which someone else isn’t the center of it like Moroi go to and he was fine with that. What he wasn’t fine with was losing the center of his world.

“I know you don’t believe me, I can see it, but even Rhodey finds joy in things that aren’t dedicating his life to me and he’s literally linked to my mind,” Tony says.

Bucky quirks an eyebrow, “like what?” he asks.

“Sports. He _loves_ sports and if you ever see me running you best get your stake out because a Strigoi is chasing me,” he says in a very serious tone and Bucky bursts out laughing. “Don’t laugh! Its true!”

“I don’t doubt that, you don’t seem like the physical type. I’ll keep your advice in mind,” he says, shaking his head.

“I am not the physical type, at least not most of the time. I’m cool with a fight as long as no one goes for my face, it’s too pretty for me to break my nose,” he says, touching his nose delicately.

Bucky tries to imagine Tony in a fight and shakes his head, “I’d stick to your Moroi classes because you’d make a terrible fighter.”

“Excuse you, I punched Ivan Vankov in the face once and Rhodey said I did a good job even though I broke my hand,” Tony says, hands on his hips.

“Then he lied because you shouldn’t have broke your hand,” Bucky says and Tony makes an offended noise. “Just saying you obviously didn’t do it right,” Bucky tells him, hand up in his own defense.

“Well I did _something_ right because Vankov’s face broke too,” Tony says in his own defense.

“Oh yeah tough guy, show me your best classic on- guard stance,” he says, barely containing his laughter as Tony manages an approximate stance though his feet weren’t in the right place, his hands were too high, and his knees weren’t bend at all. “Wow, you’re better than the kindergarten novices but you’re not taking Strigoi on anytime soon,” he says.

“Come on, what am I doing wrong? I’ve got it all here,” Tony says, looking down at his own body.

“Sure, except for all the important stuff. Don’t worry though, Rhodey’s got you covered,” Bucky says, snickering at Tony’s attempts to figure out what he was doing with himself.

“I’ve got it all here though!” Tony insists.

Bucky, because he’s an ass, grabs Tony and easily drops him on the ground. “Okay using your guardian reflexes on me is so not fair fighting,” Tony says, pouting at him from the ground.

“Dude, I didn’t even move faster than normal. Actually I moved like ten times slower than I normally would,” Bucky says, laughing at Tony’s obvious outrage.

“I maintain that you cheated,” Tony tells him, nose in the air and arms folded across his chest. Bucky laughs, shaking his head at Tony’s stubbornness. It was what he needed, a lighthearted interaction and it was so weird how Tony continued to be the one to deliver without even trying. But he needed someone else that wasn’t Tony, someone that was actually age appropriate. Maybe Sharon seems how she seemed somewhat interested.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I wrote like 12K of this today and I've only got one chapter left! The ending is _very_ open ended though so be warned. Things are wrapped up, just not totally.
> 
> Also the cool thing about Charles is that his powers actually do fit into the canon of what his brand of magic can do if a little exaggerated in this due to the blended canons.

The guardians, Tony has noticed, were moving around a hell of a lot considering it was the ass crack of dawn. Well, technically it was the ass crack of late afternoon but still. “What’s up with the guardians?” he asks Rhodey when he meets him by the feeder building.

Rhodey shrugs, “no clue,” he says irritably. Huh, weird. While he waits for a feeder to be free he examines Rhodey’s aura and the black that shrouded it at all times. It looked a little darker today, which was weird but alright. He’d been thinking since he last saw Bucky about Rhodey’s shadows because they were so _weird_. Shadows, in Tony’s experience, were linked to mental illness and sometimes physical illness if it was nasty enough. Rhodey had no signs of mental or physical instability but his shadow was always dark.

 _Shadow kissed_ …

Tony had no evidence that shadow kissed referred to the aura though and how would anyone even know that? He’s the only one that could see auras to his knowledge. He was also the only one that could heal to his knowledge as well but he suspected that someone else could too. There was _no way_ statistically that he was the only one with these abilities in _history_. That was just too ridiculous. But for now he was all the research material he had so he had to do something with his abilities.

Bucky said he felt better than normal after being healed by Tony and the guilt in his aura reflected that as well. Usually when he noted guilt in Bucky’s aura it was a greenish brown color but this time it was just a light green- normal guilt instead of guilt induced by mental illness. If Tony had to guess Bucky either had depression or PTSD, both were common in guardians from what he’s seen. Rhodey’s shadows didn’t look like any of those things and Tony’s limited experience with other mental illnesses has shown him that Rhodey’s shadows didn’t match any of those either. They were like their own specific kind of shadows and that was just odd. Unfortunately for him Rhodey was his only test subject for the shadows too so he reaches out, placing his hand on Rhodey’s forearm and drawing up that weird magic of his.

He focuses on the shadows and after a moment some of them leave, but most remain even when he pushes more magic at Rhodey. “Tony,” Rhodey hisses, “stop that.” He takes his arm back and tony huffs in annoyance.

“I was testing something,” he mumbles. Rhodey looks ready to argue but his name gets called and he goes off to the feeder he’s been assigned to, Rhodey at his side. Tony had no idea why he even bothered to come with him to these things given that being around Tony when he drank blood made him queasy. Tony was sure it had something to do with that ridiculous stigma against Dhampirs who let Moroi drink their blood, especially during sex, but Tony personally saw no issue with it. Rhodey was a member of the stigmatized race though so he figured maybe the whole blood thing wigged him out more because of it.

Rhodey ignores him as he takes the feeder’s blood and the feeder mostly ignored him too, likely already high from someone else biting them earlier. Tony would feel bad about it if they didn’t actually _like_ being here, even if their enjoyment was mostly due to their addiction to Moroi endorphins from the bites. A guy had to eat though.

“What was it you were testing?” Rhodey asks in a low voice when they leave the feeders.

“I… the other day, when I healed Bucky I healed shadows out of his aura. Usually those are a sign of mental instability of some kind and I didn’t think I could heal that kind of thing but I did and… well your aura is almost always black. There’s color in it like everyone else’s of course, but it’s all surrounded in black and I don’t know, I thought I could heal it out. But I didn’t really do much,” he says, frowning at the air around Rhodey.

“Well you did something because I woke up in a _retched_ mood. I almost beat the shit out of Justin Hammer pretty much because he was talking. Whatever you did I don’t feel that anymore,” he says.

Tony sighs, “if only you had followed through on that impulse. The world would be better off without Hammer,” he says wistfully.

“Tony,” Rhodey says in a serious tone, “I’m not kidding here, something was _way_ off. I never get that angry at anyone for anything. It’s just not in my nature.”

He looks genuinely worried and Tony doesn’t get it, sure that was really weird but everyone had bad days. But Rhodey looked particularly bothered so he sighs, “well, some of your spots disappeared so I guess I’ll keep an eye on them, see of they do anything more weird than normal.” It was the best he could do really but he sees Rhodey visibly relax.

“Thank you. I… I don’t know, it was just like this irrational wave of anger that was only getting worse before I just left the dorm to find you. But when you uh… did your thing it was gone,” he says.

To his knowledge he couldn’t heal bad moods but he supposed if some of the black in Rhodey’s aura disappeared there was something else there. Maybe. He had no idea because Rhodey’s aura was already so odd.

*

They all discover that the guardians found some information on where some Strigoi were and in a turn of events they did something unprecedented. They chose to _hunt_ the Strigoi down. Tony hadn’t thought much of it until he heard that Bucky had gone along and then he’s worried for the rest of the day. Even _he_ knew he was acting weird, and he especially knew that everyone else was worried when Loki and _Rhodey_ shared a look. Pepper alright, that made sense because she didn’t hate Loki but Rhodey? He’s not been fond of him since day one.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Pepper asks as they head back to the Moroi dorm that night, well, morning technically.

“I’m fine,” he mumbles, knowing he isn’t at all convincing. Pepper gives him a _look_ and Tony sighs, “I’m worried about Peggy,” he lies. It wasn’t that he wasn’t worried about her, of course he was, but he knew she could handle herself. Tony has seen Bucky take on the novices but they weren’t even as _close_ as dangerous as Strigoi were.

Pepper laughs and then looks like she feels bad about it almost immediately after, “sorry Tony but Peggy Carter is one of the best guardians in _history_. You’ve seen her in action, you know she’ll be fine,” she says.

“Lance Hunter was an amazing guardian too, he’s dead now,” Tony points out. Being good didn’t save you from death and Bucky, well he was used to having two arms, he was grief stricken from losing his Moroi, and Strigoi were fucking _terrifying_. All of those things could get him killed easily, especially that whole losing Steve thing.

“They’ll be back by the end of the night Tony, they’ll be alright,” she says softly. Tony hopes so but he doesn’t say anything else and Pepper lets him go in favor of heading off to her dorm.

For a while he spends time in his room trying to fall asleep but his body refuses to do the sleep thing so he sighs and gets up, figuring maybe he should just research or something. He’s almost at the library when he almost literally runs into a guardian and jumps.

“Sorry,” he says quickly, jumping back.

“Watch it,” the guardian snarls and Tony resists the urge to take another step back because _whoa_ that guy’s aura was dark. Black spots were all over the place in it and he’s never _seen_ someone with that much black in their aura. It was different than Rhodey’s aura though, he could see that this guy’s spots were due to trauma, something that was hardly unusual for a guardian.

“Erik! Be polite,” a new, accented voice says. When the guy rounds the corner and spots Tony his bright blue eyes went wide, “you have a golden aura,” he says and he breaks into a bright smile.

Out of the corner of his eye he can see the black spots in Erik’s aura shift, some of them leaving entirely though Tony got the feeling that wasn’t permanent. But he focuses what the new guest just said to him. “Did… did you just say _aura_?” he asks almost too softly to hear.

“Yes, you have a golden aura! That… can you do… _strange_ things, unexplained things?” he asks, speaking rapidly.

“No,” Tony lies immediately, not sure what to make of this and without Rhodey he wasn’t giving anything up. He didn’t know who this guy was or what he might want. He’s never seen him before but he knew enough to know he was Royal. The way he carried himself was a dead giveaway. And the fact that he had a guardian.

“That’s a lie, I can see it in your aura, honestly you should know better. Can you read minds?” he asks.

“Charles!” Erik all but yells at him, looking remarkably like Rhodey when he disapproved of something Tony just did. Did guardians all have the same disapproval face or something?

“He has a golden aura, Erik! He’s like me!” Charles protests, waving an arm around.

“He just said he couldn’t do anything unexplainable,” Erik says with his teeth gritted together. Tony itches to reach out and take the dark spots from his aura…

“And I can _see_ that he lied. Come on now, what can you do? Enter people’s dreams?” Charles asks and Erik lets out an annoyed, exasperated noise.

“What? You can _do_ that? Come on, why couldn’t I get _that_ instead of the stupid auras?” he mumbles.

Charles lets out a loud whoop and jumps up and down, “so you _are_ like me! I thought I was the only one! What else can you do?” Charles asks, eyes bright with excitement.

“I can heal pretty efficiently. _Really_ efficiently actually, I brought my best friend back from the dead but don’t tell him that. He doesn’t remember dying. And I can see auras but that’s it. Oh wait, and I’m _really_ good at compulsion. Did you say you could _read minds_? And that you can enter people’s dreams? Because that’s fucking cool. Also how did you know a golden aura meant I was like you?” he asks suspiciously.

Charles rolls his eyes, “oh come on, don’t be daft. You’ve never seen anyone with a golden aura have you? And besides that I can _feel_ you using your magic because you were looking at Erik’s aura. Also did you say you _brought someone back from the dead_? Because that is _much_ cooler than _mind reading_. I rather dislike the gift,” Charles says, wrinkling his nose delicately.

Tony wasn’t so sure, that sounded cool to him. “Yeah I uh… I brought him back from the dead. I’m Tony Stark,” he says in way of an actual explanation.

It does it’s job because Charles winces in sympathy, “oh, well that’s rather unfortunate but never mind all of that, come into the library he _have_ to talk. I’ve got about a million questions for you and well I’ve never met anyone like me before!” Charles says, brightening as quickly as his mood dampens. Tony is mostly grateful for it as he follows Charles into the library to see exactly what the hell was going on. He still half thought Charles was faking it with this aura thing. There was no way he’s met someone else like him, it was just too unlikely… right?

*

Charles learns that Tony has completely different abilities than him and, like him; he’s been researching what exactly was happening to him. “When I was in school I just thought I hadn’t specialized,” Charles says. It was rare, extremely rare, but it happened.

“Me too, but I mean I don’t have power like yours at _all_. How the hell did you figure out that you can _read minds_?” he asks.

That causes him to sigh as he leans back in his chair. “I…” he trails off for a moment, unsure how to explain this bit to a teenager. “I didn’t have a very good home life,” is what he settles on and unfortunately he can see the empathy and pain in Tony’s aura that indicated he didn’t have a very good home life either. He’d talk to him about that later, see if he could help. “Anyways my step brother Cain was… tormenting me,” he says and Erik snorts from a few book rows away. Charles shoots him an unimpressed look and continues with his story. “It was hardly unusual but I just wanted him to stop and it was like I was in his mind suddenly and I _knew_ I had control and… well I did some things I’m not very proud of,” he admits.

He made Cain live the torment he forced Charles to live through whenever they were left alone, forced him to feel what it was like when he used his element to deprive Charles of the very air he breathed, how it felt when he used air to compress his brain… It was something he never wanted to do again but in that moment it was like he was being compelled to do it and he couldn’t stop. He wasn’t sure how long it went on for but Cain left that night and Charles hasn’t seen hide nor hair of him since. Erik, when Charles finally confided in him years later, had scoffed at this because he felt Cain should have been able to put up with a taste of his own medicine. Charles still felt horrible about it. “So um, what triggered your abilities?” he asks to distract himself.

Tony shrugs, “I’ve always seen auras, never thought anything of it really. But I didn’t do much else until my dad um… well he turned Strigoi. Voluntarily in case that detail didn’t get to you. He came home for some reason, I don’t know why and I don’t care, but Rhodey- my best friend- he knew what he was right away. He attacked and Howard threw him aside like a rag doll not that it deterred Rhodey too much. He got back up but he was way too slow and Howard um… he snapped his neck. He was dead, I _know_ he was but when I reached out it was like I grabbed ahold of his life force and brought it back to his body and I healed his broken neck too. Since then I’ve not really developed any new abilities, just the healing and auras and… This is going to sound weird but do you ever feel… I don’t know, insane?” he asks, frowning because that was woefully insufficient or that’s what Charles guesses.

“So you’ve noticed that too,” he murmurs, “I was hoping you hadn’t. Yes, I have had my moments but they usually show in mania. Sometimes though I get… angry I suppose and it’s difficult to control my actions then.” That had been what happened with Cain all those years ago. He didn’t like it at all but he also had no say in how his mind worked, it just went off and did things he would never approve of in his right mind.

This seems to bring some relief to Tony and Charles can’t tell if that’s good or bad. “That’s crappy but also kind of nice. I uh, well I have chronic insomnia and probably some addiction issues. The auras are less bright when you’re drunk or high,” he says.

Charles nods because he knew this well, “I used to be an addict too,” he whispers, “because it made the voices go away.” It had been Erik who pulled him out of it and it took work but they found ways to manage Charles’ bad days.

This puts a damper on the mood but Erik walks over to distract him, ever dutiful. “You can heal right? Can you heal insanity?” he asks. Charles knows what he’s asking for immediately and he looks up at Erik in shock. “It’s getting worse and you know it, if he can heal you you’ll be okay.”

“At the cost of _his_ sanity, Erik,” Charles reminds him softly.

“His sanity isn’t my concern,” Erik states bluntly. Charles gives him a _look_ but Erik is not a creature of guilt, he didn’t fall for Charles’ nonverbal guilt trip. They had an unconventional relationship even before it turned romantic. Usually guardians, if they were friends with the Moroi they guarded, acted something like confidants. Erik, however, took it upon himself to be far more than that to Charles as soon as he found out he was doing drugs. It was a two year battle of his and Erik’s wills but Erik had a far stronger will than his own and when you’re an addict the drugs way down on you eventually. Charles eventually gave in and Erik has taken care of him ever since though he’s usually saving Charles from his own mind.

“I um… I can, I think. But I’ve only just learned about it and I’m not sure what I’m doing there. Physical stuff, that’s easy because bones are simple. With mental illnesses though I just sort of look for dark spots in their aura and try and suck them out. It works but I’ve never tried it on well someone like us I guess. Does our magic even work on each other?” he asks.

Charles nods immediately, “it does, I can read your mind also. Just surface thoughts of course, I can’t help the wayward thoughts and I would never dig deep,” he assures Tony.

He nods, “well okay. I think we should research though, see if we can find something on our weird magic before we do something stupid,” Tony says.

“That,” Charles says, “is where you’re in luck. I have a lot of research on unaccounted magic and it is _fascinating_. I know I can do some of the things mentioned but you can do different things also, plus there are the things neither of us can do. How do you feel about meeting me here during your lunch hour?” he asks.

“I’d rather just skip first period- it’s my elemental class,” he says before Charles protests. “This would be more useful than that anyways.” Charles considers for a long moment before he eventually agrees.


	14. Chapter 14

Charles and Tony talk until the school day’s dawn and Charles offers to talk to someone to see if Tony could have the day off but he waves him off. He was used to functioning on low amounts of sleep and he’d never get to bed when he was so worried about Bucky and to a lesser extent the rest of the guardians checking out those Strigoi. They went during the day, which was easily an advantage, but that didn’t necessarily mean they would come back unharmed. Humans probably wouldn’t be able to do much damage but Tony knew a thing or two about well-trained humans- Peggy’s rumored girlfriend was one of them- and he figured they could cause enough damage to hurt. He met Natasha once for a few minutes and she _looked_ terrifying.

He and Charles are talking about their research on strange magic when they both catch the flurry of action as the guardians return. “Oh,” Charles says, frowning, “they have injured guardians. That’s- Tony, where are you going!” he asks as Tony immediately starts off towards the infirmary. He can feel more than see Charles following, and presumably Erik too, thanks to getting a feel on how to sense their magic. They figured they could do more than just see the magic on each other- Charles was right in saying Tony has never seen a golden aura before and he couldn’t see his own so he didn’t know. Charles said he’d teach Tony how to see his own aura and then they worked on trying to focus on each other, wondering if they could read a magical signature of sorts given the empathetic nature of their powers.

They had figured it out and now Tony could feel Charles’ magic even if he wasn’t focusing on it. He wonders briefly if Charles was counting on sensing Tony’s mind of his magic given that he typically focused on minds. He brushes the thoughts aside as he approaches the infirmary though because he needed to know who got hurt. He’s about to walk though the door where the commotion was when he feels a hand pull him back. The force was far stronger than anything Charles could have managed, which meant it was Erik. Tony turns to tell him off but Charles quickly shushes him and turns his focus on the people passing by, two fingers to his temple.

For a good thirty seconds Tony had no damn clue what Charles was doing until he notices that no one was noticing them standing there. “Are you… hiding us somehow?” Tony asks after a few more seconds of observation.

“Yes,” Charles says through gritted teeth, “all they see is the wall behind us.”

Tony’s eyebrows shoot up, “okay, _that’s_ cool. You didn’t say you could do that,” he says.

“Part of the mind reading and compulsion,” Charles explains. Erik doesn’t look at all impressed with this but he stands there for several more moments before he gestures to a door down the hall. Charles nods, apparently having read Erik’s plan out of his mind and completely forgetting that Tony couldn’t do that before they set off. Erik seems to remember his inability to read minds though because he reaches out and snatches Tony’s arm, dragging him along when he notices that Tony hadn’t started moving with them.

“He can’t keep that up for too long,” Erik explains when he all but tosses Tony into the small room down the hall.

“Oh, what is _that_?” Charles asks, eyes widening.

“What’s what?” Tony asks, frowning.

Charles’ eyebrows shoot up, “oh, you can’t feel that? I… I think someone is… attached or something to your mind. It feels like they’re on the cusp of being _in_ your mind,” he says.

Tony swears, “damnit, that’s Rhodey. The best friend I brought back to life,” he explains. “We have a bond and sometimes if my emotions are running high he slips into my head accidentally.” Now was absolutely _not_ the time for this kind of thing to happen to him but he guessed he could make excuses like he had to Pepper to Rhodey…

“I can push him back out if you’d like, he doesn’t seem impressed that you’ve woken him up,” Charles says. Tony considers it for a moment, weighing the pros and cons before he nods for Charles to go ahead. The weird thing is that Tony can feel _Charles_ in his head, but not Rhodey. Maybe it was because the bond made Rhodey’s presence noninvasive or something. He didn’t know, but he knew immediately when Charles was in his head because he felt _foreign_ , like an oppressive force in there rooting around in a mind that wasn’t his.

“Oh,” Charles says, “my god your mind is _fascinating_. There we go, out you go Rhodey.” Tony can feel Rhodey for a brief second before Charles pushes him out and then the two-way connection is broken. Tony gets a brief spike in worry that he knows isn’t his own and he sighs.

“Can you like… mute the bond or something? Rhodey’s probably going to try hunting me down and I need a few minutes,” he says. Charles and Erik exchange a look but Charles shrugs.

“I suppose I can see if I can hold the bond at bay for a few moments but your mind is very um… _aware_ of my presence. Most minds feel a prickle of something in their heads but it’s little more than paranoia that someone else can see their thoughts. You out and out knew I was there and how to locate my presence specifically. That was very odd in my experience,” Charles says, frowning at Tony’s forehead like he could get something out of it if he stared at it long enough.

Tony nods, getting what Charles meant when he feels his presence in Tony’s head again and he opens the door, intent of seeing who got hurt quickly before he left the infirmary. He runs into someone immediately but it doesn’t take him long to hold eye contact, “we have permission to be here. Don’t worry about us,” he says, pushing his will outward through his voice and the nurse looks briefly confused before he wanders off and Tony presses forward.

“That was… you’re good at that,” Charles says.

“You’re better,” Erik mumbles behind them. Tony got the feeling Erik didn’t like him much.

“That’s because I can control _minds_ , Erik. He did that without any sort of telepathy,” Charles says, sounding impressed. Tony ignores their bickering to look around the room. There weren’t many people in it so it seemed like only a few guardians got hurt but his heart still skips a beat or three when he spots Bucky lying on an examination table looking pale. He can see a few cuts and bruises and his aura indicates that he isn’t conscious. _Shit_.

He quickly walks over and contemplates his options before he figures fuck it, why bother holding back? So he takes a deep breath and reaches out to his magic, touching that warm, tingling feeling that he got when he healed people and he pushes it outwards towards Bucky. Behind him he can hear Charles gasp in surprise and at his fingertips he can see color returning to Bucky’s face as the cuts, bruises, and various other wounds disappear. Tony pulls back, leaving a few of the harsher wounds so it didn’t look like he was brought in for nothing even though he doesn’t want to. He hardly expects Bucky to wake up, looking confused and surprisingly alert.

“Hey, shh, you’re at the Academy,” Tony tells him, gently pressing him back onto the table. He goes easily enough even though he could easily rival Tony for strength even hurt.

“Oh. When did I get back here?” he asks, frowning and looking around.

“Not long ago, maybe a half hour or so. I have to go though, alright? Class and all that,” he says, smiling wearily. Bucky blinks a few more times, obviously still a little thrown off but he nods and Tony goes, looking back for just a moment at Bucky before he turns the corner and leaves the building.

*

As expected Rhodey _loses_ it when he finds Tony in the cafeteria, dragging him and his bagel out of the room and into the hallway. “What the _fuck_ happened this morning?” he hisses.

“Look, it was nothing, I’ll-” Tony would have continued but Rhodey cuts him off.

“Nothing, _nothing_? I was _pushed out of your head_ and then I couldn’t see or feel you for like ten minutes! I almost alerted the guardians because I thought you were _dead_!” Rhodey snaps, voice rising as he continues.

“I met someone else like me,” Tony says quickly before Rhodey could continue. “Someone who didn’t specialize but has… abilities. Not the same as mine but that was him, it’s _fine_ Rhodey. I’m okay, we were just testing our magic,” he lies easily. It wasn’t technically a lie, they _were_ testing Charles’ magic and Tony’s given that they had no idea how or if any of that even would have worked.

Rhodey considers this for a long moment before he relaxes some, “Tony, you can’t _do_ shit like that without warning me first. Do you even know this guy? Because if this is another Loki type thing-” he starts and Tony waves him off.

“Charles and Loki are nothing alike, _and_ you have no reason to dislike Loki. I… we… look he’s been dong research for a long time on his special brand of magic and we can both feel that we’re accessing the same kind of magic. Plus he knows about the um… _other_ things too, the affects.”

“Tony!” Rhodey hisses at him, throwing his hands up. “Stop telling people about all your problems! Someone is bound to use it against you!”

“He has the same problems, Rhodey. Well not the exact same, but we both have mental instabilities and we’ve both used substances to numb the magic. This is important Rhodey, we both know things about our magic that the other doesn’t. I’m not some kind of freak!” he says and he can feel his excitement build for the first time since finding Charles. Now that he knew Bucky was okay this was all sorts of awesome. Tony has been feeling some pretty nasty side affects to his magic and given that Charles had them too he wasn’t just crazy, he had a _reason_ for being crazy. It was his magic; it was doing something to him and to Charles but neither one of them knew why.

But with each other they could figure out each other’s abilities, learn how to use them _and_ how to avoid going nuts. Hell, maybe they’d even be able to learn what kind of element they were controlling. Obviously they had some connection to one of the four but Tony wasn’t sure which one it was and he was less sure why regular users of this element didn’t have the powers they did. Earth had theoretical life-giving abilities, and air was often associated with the mind, but no element was attached to auras. Besides that Tony has felt Pepper use earth, this wasn’t that. And why did he and Charles have golden auras when no one else seemed to? What did that mean? Well he knew what it meant- that they worked the same kind of magic- but they didn’t know why only _they_ had the auras versus everyone attached to the element they were using.

“Whoa, hey, hey. Slow down, I know you’ve got a million questions just… be careful,” Rhodey says, ever he cautious one.

Tony smiles but he laughs, “you sound like Charles’ guardian. He wasn’t impressed when Charles started talking about all the things he could do before he even technically knew I could do weird things too,” he says, thinking of how annoyed Erik had looked and how excited Charles had looked. The image must be strong for Rhodey too because he laughs and throws an arm around Tony, pulling him back into the cafeteria so they could eat. He does tell Tony to watch his back at least fifty times over the course of the meal though. So much so that Pepper had to eventually ask what Loki did only to find out about Charles instead.

*

The magic always had consequences but Tony didn’t usually feel them so fast after using it. This time, he supposed, might be different because he was used to numbing the power with some kind of pill or booze and he hasn’t been doing that lately, plus he used a lot of the element today. Either way the auras were giving him headaches because they were so _bright_ and he was tired but he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep.

“Are you alright?” Loki murmurs, gently kneeling down beside him. They’re in the library researching some earth magic both Loki and Pepper were curious about but he must not be pulling his weight if Loki had noticed he was off.

“I’m okay, I just have a headache,” he says softly.

Loki looks sympathetic and to Tony’s surprise he stands and starts closing to books to put them away. “You don’t need to do that,” Tony says quickly, not wanting Loki to stop any sort of research on his account.

“Shh,” Loki says gently, “it’s alright. Just relax and we’ll go back to the dorm in a moment, alright?”

Tony’s head hurt too much to argue much about it so he remains silent as Loki moves around packing his things. It feels like longer than it probably was but Loki comes back to him and gently helps him out of his chair. He lets Tony lean on him too, wrapping his arm around Tony’s waist as he leads him off to the Moroi dorm.

He should have anticipated Rhodey showing up given that he could feel Tony’s pain like it was his own but he doesn’t until Rhodey is right there, gently talking to him. Tony goes to respond, thankful that it was still dark outside, but Loki catches his attention. “I’ve got him, alright? You can go back to your dorm, I’ll make sure he gets to bed alright,” Loki tells him.

Rhodey looks ready to argue because he doesn’t like Loki but Loki reiterates the words and Rhodey nods, gently telling Tony to sleep well before he goes. Tony nods weakly and lets Loki all but drag him across campus. He lets Loki lead the way to his room and gratefully flops on the bed when he gets there. “Do you need anything?” he asks softly, bending down to Tony’s level again.

“Yeah, a fucking drink or five,” Tony mumbles. He’s been getting cravings, of course he has, but they were mostly out of his mind with how busy he was lately with worrying about attacks, Loki’s attentions to him, Pepper talking about her new progress with her element, Bucky, and Charles. But now he just wanted to drown in a bottle of whisky because his damn head was killing him and that would help.

The last thing Tony expects is for Loki to actually give him alcohol, not that he notices at first. He just presses the bottle into Tony’s hands and he sits up some, taking a drink of the liquid only to realize it was alcohol too late. By then his body sort of takes over and he tips it back and drinks more.

“Hey slow down,” Loki says, gently pulling at Tony’s arm. “I have no idea how you can stomach that.” Loki wrinkles his nose and his aura shows a touch of disgust though Tony is pretty sure it’s directed towards the alcohol.

“You don’t have my headache,” he mumbles and drinks some more. It takes a few minutes but he eventually notices the way Loki’s aura was starting to fade thank _god_.

*

Rhodey walks off to his own dorm like nothing was wrong despite the niggling feeling in the back of his head that Tony needed him. He waves it off though because he was sure it was nothing and he had a lot of homework he needed to get done. Plus he was planning on asking Peggy about that guardian raid because she might just feel generous enough to give him a few details.

His classmates obviously assume the same thing because they all swarm him as soon as he enters the dorm, peppering him with questions that he didn’t have the answers to yet. “Shit guys, can’t you give me ten seconds to actually ask Peggy? I have my own things to do you know,” he points out.

“Well hurry up and get us some answers Rhodes, do your dues,” one of his classmates jokes and he rolls his eyes fondly.

“Yeah, yeah. Give me a half an hour and I’ll see what I can do,” he tells them all and he heads off to ask Peggy a few questions. It isn’t until he’s almost at the guardian building that he realizes why he felt so uncomfortable leaving Tony earlier.

He hates Loki and he doesn’t trust him as far as Tony could throw him. And Tony probably couldn’t even pick him up. So why the _hell_ did he just leave Tony there with him almost no questions asked?

The answer is easy when he thinks back on it, focusing past that urge to go back to his dorm. He’s seen Tony work compulsion a million times, especially after Howard, but it never really occurred to him that other Moroi could wield it too, mostly because other Moroi almost never used that particular brand of magic. To them it was immoral but this was Loki, Rhodey doubted he had the same reservations that the rest of Moroi society did but it _did_ surprise him that he could use compulsion on a dhampir. That was difficult for even the most talented Moroi when it came to compulsion. The only exception was Tony, but he was also a novice. Youth made minds easier to manipulate and Rhodey was _pissed_ that he was susceptible.

As soon as he realized what happened, though, he takes off to find Tony. Something was going on here and he wasn’t going to abandon his best friend when he obviously needed Rhodey.


	15. Chapter 15

When Tony wakes up he has a nasty hangover so he groans and goes to throw his blanket over his head so he could sleep the day away. “Oh no you don’t, Stark. You wake your ass up and explain yourself,” Rhodey tells him and Tony cracks an eye open to find Rhodey sitting across the room from him looking pissed. Not a crappy dream his stupid hung over mind made up then. God damnit.

“Explain what?” he slurs out though that’s thankfully because he’s tired, not because he’s still drunk.

“Don’t play stupid Tony, I can _smell_ the alcohol,” Rhodey says in his Serious Business Voice.

Fucking damnit. “I just needed something to take the edge off it all, I’m fine,” he says even though the lights from outside were hurting his head. Thank god he wasn’t forced to function during the day, he’d die. The lights that lit the school at night were already rough enough on his eyes. He doesn’t even want to focus too long on Rhodey because his aura was bound to give him an even bigger headache.

Rhodey remains silent for a long time before he speaks, “what do you remember about yesterday?” he asks.

Tony snorts, wondering just how much Rhodey thought he’d drank. “I met a guy, one like me, and we um… tested out a lot of magic so I think that’s why I got a headache but then it just kept getting _worse_ throughout the day. Then after school was I doing some research with Loki and he ended up taking me back here. You showed up briefly but you took off to do homework or something and then I made kind of a bad joke about needing a drink to Loki and well he gave me one. Before you start freaking out though he had no idea that I’ve had some um… issues with alcohol so this isn’t his fault. I was the one who drank it,” he says before Rhodey chews Loki a new one for something he didn’t know about.

That wouldn’t be fair and even if Loki knew Tony had willpower of his own, he could have said no and he didn’t. That was no one’s problem but his own no matter how much Rhodey might try and spin it.

“What about after that?” Rhodey asks. Tony thinks about it but the memories are hazy likely from the mix of pain and alcohol.

“Loki asked some questions about magic I think and then I passed out,” he says. Not unusual behavior on his part really, especially given the circumstances.

Rhodey all but dives for the door and Tony’s body hates him when he dives after Rhodey. “Jesus, where are you going?” he asks, half falling into Rhodey’s path.

Thankfully Rhodey catches him and gently rights him, “I’m going to ask Loki what the hell he asked you so I can figure out what the fuck his problem is,” he says, sounding and looking fiercely protective of Tony.

Tony rolls his eyes, “Rhodey I was drunk and in a fair amount of pain, my testimony is hardly reliable and even if it was and Loki really does have some _master plan_ to do something to me or whatever do you think it’s wise to tell him out and out that you know about it? I thought you guardians were supposed to be sneaky,” he says. Its out and out manipulation on Tony’s part and Rhodey was by no means stupid enough to fall for it but his words give Rhodey pause anyways because something must occur to him.

“You’re right. If Loki has a plan, and I’m damn certain he does, then it probably wouldn’t be smart if he knew I knew. Right now he thinks he’s flying mostly under my radar and it would be wise to keep it that way. So here’s what you’re going to do,” Rhodey tells him and then he gives Tony a handful of Loki Rules that Tony so wasn’t following.

They haggle back and forth for a bit before they finally settle on a solution of sorts. Rhodey had initially told Tony not to go anywhere near Loki without him present but Tony pointed out that that was really suspicious, especially after the night before and thankfully Rhodey agreed. So he was mostly under instruction to act normal around Loki but to watch for any inconsistencies in any stories he told or any other suspicious behavior. Personally Tony thought Rhodey was being overdramatic but he agrees to make him feel better. The downside was that he now had to deliver freaking _reports_ to Rhodey on Loki’s behavior every day and Tony knows there’s no way he’ll wiggle out of that.

Eventually Rhodey goes and gets him some Advil and Tony takes it gratefully before he’s forced by Rhodey to prepare for school because Rhodey was determined to make him suffer.

*

At the feeders Pepper asks Rhodey about any information about that guardian raid Rhodey might have from Peggy but he relays Tony’s story about Loki and drinking from the night before instead, citing that as the reason he had no answers. Tony pouts while Pepper chews him out in her strange gentle but stern way. Once they have established Loki as the enemy, something Pepper was apparently happy to support now, Rhodey tells her that he’s going to ask Peggy about the raid after class.

They all go their own ways, Tony briefly explaining to Rhodey about Charles before he tries to go in the direction of the library Rhodey-free. Except Rhodey reroutes and follows him immediately, “okay excuse you. Go to your own classes before Peggy skins you for being late,” Tony tells him, shooing him off.

“ _After_ I meet this Charles guy,” Rhodey tells him, leaving no room for asking questions.

Tony rolls his eyes but lets Rhodey tag along to see how harmless Charles is. Charles, thankfully, is a good sport about this and answers all of Rhodey’s questions before he finally deems Charles not evil and he takes off to class. “He’s protective,” Charles notes, “and remarkably alright with me shoving him out of your mind.”

“That’s probably because I gave him bigger worries last night. And I also lied a little and told him we were practicing with some of your magical abilities,” he says. Rhodey had fallen for it because it made sense and because there wasn’t much in Tony’s mind to indicate it was a lie because _technically_ it was true though the circumstances were nothing like Tony described.

“You know he’ll find out, right? He’s attached to your hip and deeply invested in your well-being and safety. The fact that you’ve managed to keep your um… _relationship_ from him thus far is a miracle,” Charles says.

Tony sighs, “so I know but it isn’t much of a relationship so there isn’t much to lie about anyways.”

Charles’s eyebrows shoot up, “that’s not what your auras suggested.”

“Or my eyes,” Erik throws in. “I know Barnes and the only person he looked at the way he looked at you was Rogers.”

Great, Tony thinks, he’s been upgraded from child in Bucky’s eyes to his new Moroi to protect. This was total bullshit. “Fine, fine, enough of that. What have you found in your research?” he asks Charles.

Thankfully Charles was fond of lectures because he launches into his research on genetics and Dhampirs in particular- he got a PhD in the subject- and how that led to his research on elemental magic. From there he launches into a history of the ways magic was used and the magic that wasn’t accounted for by the other elements. He started comparing the similarities to try and weed out facts from fiction but he found that there were remarkable similarities across the board once he found the patterns.

The connecting bits of information consisted of some kind of mental instability, not specializing in any other element obviously, and unexplained connections to other magic though the magic was usually linked to healing or compulsion. Charles and Tony both had those things though they both had abilities that fell outside of those things too. Like Charles’ mind reading but inability to heal, or how they could both see auras.

“Okay, so we have some places to look but what _is_ it that we’re doing?” he asks. They had to have been connected to _some_ element so what was it?

Charles sighs, “I have no idea, most of this is just stories and speculation that’s barely been confirmed by the two of us and our abilities. A lot of this stuff is from stories of saints too and the stories tend to be written by humans. They just assumed that these were acts of god and I certainly know I am not channeling the Holy Spirit,” Charles says.

Tony laughs, “yeah I noticed that too when I looked up healing and all of that, but this wouldn’t be the first time Moroi have been associated with gods in some way. Any of your research mention the term ‘shadow kissed’ in reference to healing?” he asks. Charles mentions a crazy dead saint and Tony sighs, annoyed with the lack of progress.

Charles, on the other hand, thinks they’ve made all kinds of progress and makes Tony map out when his powers manifested, what he could do, an new abilities he’s noticed, and all his side effects. He does and he asks Charles about his genetic research to pass the time while he wrote everything out. He’s happy to tell Tony about his work and he’s surprised but pleased when Tony could keep up just fine with the jargon. He’s read plenty on Moroi genetics though Dhampir genetics hadn’t occurred to him until he found Charles.

He hands Charles everything he knew and sits back, “so how come you’re at the Academy?” he asks. All that research and his family’s money suggested he could have fucked off with Erik where ever but instead he came here? Tony wouldn’t have made the same choice if he got to study what he wanted like Charles.

“They need guardians here,” Erik answers instead of Charles. Tony was starting to get used to the way he sometimes stepped into conversations when no one invited him though it was still odd to him. Guardians, while they often formed relationships with their charges, were generally seen but not heard if something was going on. This would be one of those situations and yet Erik happily threw his thoughts out there.

“He had one of the worst school records I have _ever_ seen,” Charles says, obviously skimming Tony’s thoughts. According to him he used to have to focus on a person’s mind but now it was a near constant stream of voices unless he either actively blocked them out or if he took something like Tony did sometimes. “No on wanted him as a guardian and I’m fairly certain he wanted it that way so he was rather surprised when I picked him. I’m the wealthy son of a prominent Royal family, the black sheep of the entire _country_ didn’t seem like a good pick but I fought for him and since no one else wanted him,” Charles shrugs, leaving Tony to guess the rest.

“But why?” Tony asks.

“Because by then I had a good grasp on my ability to read minds and knew Erik was hiding his skills on purpose. I never wanted to be part of Moroi society either; I figured we would get along as a couple of recluses if I _had_ to have a guardian. Plus he gets paid to have the pleasure of my company so it’s hardly a terrible deal for him. Until recently it’s worked out well for us but guardians are in short supply and I’ve had enough close calls to give Erik here a reputation for killing Strigoi. They needed his expertise and I could use some bright-eyed bushy tailed Dhampirs for my research. Do you think your friend would supply some hair samples?” Charles asks, eyes bright.

Tony promises he’d talk to Rhodey about helping with Charles’ research and heads out to his next class. His hangover, thankfully, was less heinous by this point even if he still had a nasty headache so he’d at least be able to focus even if he wouldn’t want to. He’s almost out of the library when Erik catches up to him, cutting off his way out. Tony pauses, unsure if he’s supposed to feel weary here because Erik was… unstable. Sometimes Tony noticed Charles’ aura dim, and sometimes he’d outright see a spot in it, but Erik’s aura was darker than anything he’s seen before. The exception was Rhodey but Tony was pretty sure that had to do with the whole ‘shadow-kissed’ thing. To his knowledge Erik has never been kissed by any shadows, whatever that meant. Tony was pretty sure it had something to do with dying anyways and he’s pretty sure Charles would have noticed if his guardian died at some point.

“You said you’ve never really worked a lot with mental instability, that you weren’t sure what you could do there exactly,” Erik says. Tony nods even though he’s pretty sure that was a rhetorical question. “I’m sure you’ve noticed my aura, sometimes Charles’ talks about it when he gets… Point is I know I have issues. A lot of things in my life have left a permanent mark on my psyche, which means I’m a prime candidate for you to test your ability to heal insanity.”

He gets what Erik is asking for and it surprised him, especially given how uncomfortable he seemed with Charles’ mind reading abilities. “I uh… I can see what I can do I guess. Have you died by any chance?” he asks.

Erik frowns at him, “do I look dead to you? Last I checked ghosts weren’t real. Either that or you’re already nuts, in which case then I’ll have no problems using you to heal Charles.” Technically, Tony notices, Erik doesn’t answer the question.

The hairs on the back of Tony’s neck stand on end as he picks up on the implications of Erik’s words. “Yeah, I’m not nuts yet bud and I _do_ have people who would care if I go missing.”

“You have a novice and a mother who’s fallen from grace, none of that is relevant,” he says easily.

“You underestimate just how determined Rhodey can be, and my mom for that matter and even if you didn’t you might be fucked in the head but Charles has a pretty strong sense of morality. I highly doubt he’d be fine with your plan,” he says. He sounds a lot more confident than he feels but he does at least have something Erik wants so he had some kind of way to negotiate here. That and he could always try calling to Rhodey through the bond. He’s never done it before but if he could feel what Tony did when he wasn’t distressed he was sure he could pick up on Tony out and out telling him to get his novice ass to him to save him from his new friend’s mentally unstable nutcase of a guardian.

Erik smirks, “and what makes you think Charles isn’t in on it?” he asks. “He’s a mind reader, it’s hardly like I can keep secrets from him,” Erik points out.

Tony snorts, “one, you two only discovered me the day before yesterday and I outright stated that I wasn’t sure if I could heal mental health problems. And two, I have experience keeping people out of my head when I don’t want them in there regardless of how connected they are to my mind. I don’t doubt you’ve found ways too given that you have an obvious distaste for the power. Now get out of my way before I take my generous offer to try and help you with Charles’ budding insanity back.”

He’s shocked when Erik actually moves out of his way but he doesn’t need a second cue to get the hell out of there while he could. He _so_ wasn’t going anywhere near Charles without Rhodey somewhere close ever again.

*

Bucky gets released so he could heal in his room in the guardian’s section of the campus and moving was a real pain in his ass. Tony healed most of the flesh wounds but he left that nasty gash on his lower stomach that was making his life needlessly difficult. He limps along while he admires the sunrise, happy that most students were off in bed by now. He didn’t really feel like explaining his presence, his wounds, or answering the students’ questions.

He doesn’t expect it, though in hindsight that was stupid, but he runs into Tony. “Hey,” Tony says, rushing up to him. “Are you even supposed to be out because you’re still really hurt, I can feel it.”

Bucky grins at him and leans against a tree for support, thankful that his left arm wasn’t there to get in the way for once. “Yeah I got cleared to go heal in my own room but that’s probably because I made a fuss about being in the hospital.” No one was _fond_ of hospitals but they reminded Bucky of Steve so he had a special kind of aversion to them. Eventually the nurses and doctors got annoyed of his whining and sent him off to heal elsewhere. It was a tactic Bucky has picked up from Steve and he was happy to see it worked even when he’s a guardian instead of a Moroi.

Tony looks him up and down before he steps forward, “if you want I can heal you a little more, I can see your pain.” He’s looking at the air around Bucky and he sighs.

“I’ve had worse wounds Tony, I’ll be fine. You used some kind of ridiculous compulsion to get in and out and usually Moroi don’t use that much power all at once so I have no idea how you aren’t still exhausted.” Steve had been an earth user and moving rocks made him tired let alone anything more than that. Granted he was an exception to the rule but still, Tony would have had to use compulsion on at least five people, some of them guardians with more resistance to it, to get in to Bucky let alone out. And then there was the healing thing too.

He knew for a fact Tony didn’t usually use that much power all at once because he’s spent three months watching him. At any given time he only used a little compulsion and maybe some healing along with pretty much constantly seeing auras. That was no where near the amount of power he would have needed to get in and out of the hospital wing unnoticed by anyone. It made him wonder how the hell Tony managed to pull that off but thankfully Tony feels forthcoming with information today.

“I had some help. I met someone like me a few hours before and it turns out he can do some compulsion on _crack_. Like he can outright make people not see that he’s standing _right there_. Anyways Charles helped me out so I only actually used a little bit of compulsion and I healed you some. It’s nothing really, I can heal you more if you need it,” he says, half reaching out to Bucky’s stomach wound before he pulls his hand back looking somewhat pained.

That was… odd. He’s only ever seen Tony heal once but he’d hardly been paying attention when Tony had done that and now he was kicking himself in the ass for it. “Do you… feel compelled to heal me?” he asks.

Tony rolls his eyes at the poor choice of words but he answers regardless. “Not exactly. But I can see that you’re in pain and I don’t like leaving people there like that, never have. I used to heal Rhodey too before he got ahold of what it felt like through the bond and told me to stop it. I don’t like it but,” he shrugs. It wasn’t like he could force heal Rhodey and if he tried well, that would be futile given how easy it would be for Rhodey to restrain Tony.

“Well I’ll be fine Tony. I mean it when I say I’ve had worse,” he says gently. Even if he wasn’t including having his arm ripped off he’s been in some tough spots that have left him with some nasty wounds. This was part of being a guardian and he’s long accepted that.

Tony sighs, “alright fine. What happened though? Peggy said you guys were there mostly to see if your intel was right and to gather information so how the hell did you end up so,” he waves his hand around Bucky’s wounded gut.

He almost asks how he knew that but then he remembers that Rhodey was a favored student of Peggy’s and the information was just bare enough for it to be accurate but not particularly useful. “It was a bit more than that or that’s how things ended up. We were initially only going to canvas the house that we found because it looked like no one was in it. Of course we were wrong and guardian 101 is to not hesitate when someone comes at you but the Strigoi were smart and sent the humans after us first. Almost all of us hesitated because we didn’t want to hurt them,” he says.

 _Stupid_ , they already knew that humans were working with the Strigoi so they shouldn’t have hesitated. Sure wasting a human life would be horrible but they were in league with the undead for gods sakes. They all knew how to incapacitate; the humans would have been easy to clear but no, near everyone froze.

“You didn’t freeze,” Tony says more than asks.

Bucky shakes his head, “no I didn’t but everyone else hesitating meant I got to the Strigoi first and I only have one arm. In a fight that leaves my entire chest open to attack in almost any position I’ll end up in and I had no back up for a solid thirty seconds. It doesn’t sound like a lot but trust me, it is. I managed to stake two and kick the other into the fray of humans so someone _else_ could deal with it but the damn things kept coming. We managed to win by the skin of our asses but it wasn’t without it’s drawbacks,” he says, looking down at his stomach.

“You managed to kill two Strigoi without help?” Tony asks, looking impressed.

“Six, but two were without help yeah.” And the odds were three-to-one and his chest was mostly open for attack. He had to wonder if Steve was acting as his guardian angel now or something because people didn’t come out of those odds alive let alone able to fight several more Strigoi.

Tony’s eyebrows fly up, “that many?” he asks.

He nods, “there was a more than unusual amount of Strigoi in the house. I’m pretty sure we were set up because they were clearly prepared for us. Makes me wonder where the information came from.” Everything had been too perfect on both ends and that made him nervous. If the Strigoi were hand-feeding them cherry picked information they were so fucked he didn’t even want to think about it.

“Jesus Christ,” Tony breaths, “no wonder the novices worship you.”

Bucky gives him a wry smile, “well I’d prefer if you didn’t follow suit. I like that you don’t try and kiss my feet as I walk by.” He also liked that Tony didn’t treat him like a guardian either. It was refreshing to finally be in a role where he was _him_. Tony’s words from some time ago float back to him. It surprised him that it’s taken so long for him to realize that both he and Tony were placed into narrow boxes that they didn’t like but accepted because it was the best they were going to get. Sure, they both did what they could to get out of their boxes but Bucky will only ever be a guardian and Tony will never outlive his father’s legacy. It was a sad and somewhat painful realization.

Tony must notice because he steps closer to him and reaches out, gently touching the arm Bucky currently had curled around his wounded stomach. He can feel the strange tingly heat from Tony’s magic and then the pain recedes a little, “Hey, I’m alright,” he says even though he was just starting to realize what kind of pain he was in. No wonder Tony kept offering to heal him, now that he wasn’t in nearly as much pain he realized he was on the verge of passing out.

“No,” Tony says, “you aren’t. But you’re a little bit better now. And no worries about me kissing the ground you walk on- the only person I’m willing to worship is myself.”

His tone is cocky but Bucky knew him well enough to know it was all a show, one that was remarkably similar to the way Maria Stark acted. Like she was untouchable, and if someone did have the misfortune of crossing her she made sure you knew she’d fight back. Hard. Huh. Tony was known for being like his father but Bucky wondered how true that was really. “Tony, you regularly use the sun as an attempted sleep aid and doesn’t include the half a dozen other methods of self harm you use. If you’re trying to worship yourself you might want to start actually doing things that make you happy instead of miserable.” Its out before he can stop it but thankfully Tony doesn’t seem to take it too hard.

“True,” he murmurs, “but you told me to go find someone my own age.”

He sighs, “sure I did, because that’s what’s best for you. I don’t… I don’t know what I’m doing here and it isn’t right for me to go messing with your life. You deserve better than that,” he says honestly. He’s been through a lot in the last year and he didn’t need Bucky swooping in and making it all worse.

“And you don’t think I can make that kind of decision on my own?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Things are different when you’re seventeen. Take it from someone who’s been there,” he says. When you were that age you thought you had it all figured out and in that moment you were right, but years later? That was when you knew when and where you fucked up. He’s made enough mistakes to know how that felt.

“Or you know, you can take it from the person who is outright telling you that I’m _fine_ with this. Will I be in ten years? Who the fuck knows, but realistically in five years I could be in a relationship with someone totally different and have that fall apart too. Age doesn’t guarantee anything so I don’t see why you’re so hung up on this,” Tony says.

He isn’t wrong, not exactly. But it didn’t change the fact that he was a grown adult attracted to a _high schooler_ , he should be in _jail_. Of course Tony didn’t care about that, why would he? Bucky wouldn’t have at Tony’s age. But he can’t safely say he’d care at his age either. That was kind of an experience thing and he was lucky to not have that understanding. “Tony,” Bucky starts but Tony cuts him off.

“Look,” he says softly, leaning into Bucky’s space a little and he only just realizes how close they were. “I get why you’re worried but I’ve never been normal. When I know what I want I know what I want. And I want you.”

The feeling was mutual and he damn well knew Tony could tell even if his aura wasn’t giving anything away. It was obvious enough that he was shocked no one else has picked up on it. So, because he’s weak, when Tony leans up and kisses him he kisses Tony back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be clear do _not go kissing teachers_!


	16. Chapter 16

Bucky probably hadn’t anticipated the help walking him back to his swanky guardian apartment but he really wasn’t in any condition to get there himself. He must have done some very impressive complaining at the clinic. Tony helps him though because someone had to make sure he didn’t keel over on the way home.

“Not gunna lie, this apartment is not what I expected,” Tony says as he deposits Bucky on his couch. By the time they had gotten here Tony had been next to carrying Bucky and he was not meant for that kind of activity. Moroi hardly did the heavy lifting when it came to literal heavy things. Political stuff was more their arena not that Tony really got much of a say in that anymore given his father’s actions. Asshole.

“And what’d you expect?” Bucky asks, offering a smile that Tony got the feeling people didn’t see often. He heard that Bucky used to be a real flirt but seeing him now it was hard to believe he’d been anything but a guardian.

“Something nice,” Tony says bluntly. Sure this place had some class- if they were renting it out as a no tell motel. “They _do_ realize you guys _die_ for us, right? Couldn’t they give you a place with some… I don’t know, swag?” he says for lack of a better term.

Bucky throws back his head and laughs but he looks like he regrets it immediately. “God, you Moroi are so damn clueless sometimes. This is fine with me, I don’t need much. Actually my training has taught me to survive on nothing but the land and I’ve done it too. I hated every second of it but I survived,” he says. “One of Peggy’s training exercises, one she only offers to those she likes because it looks nice on school records though technically anyone can go,” he explains when Tony raises an eyebrow.

“Poor Rhodey. I’d shoot myself if I were forced to live off the land.” He _liked_ modernity and he was not wiping his ass with leaves but that was mostly because of a bad experience he had when he went camping as a child. How was he supposed to know that was poison ivy? And he didn’t appreciate Rhodey laughing so hard he damn near wet himself either. Of course _he_ knew it was poison ivy and now Tony knew how.

“You wouldn’t have a gun,” Bucky says. “We were even instructed to come up with ways to kill Strigoi in that environment. That’s not fucking easy let me tell you.” Tony didn’t doubt that whatsoever though he had to wonder how the hell Dhampirs would even end up in that position.

Tony, maybe because he’s selfish, simply can’t imagine going through all this training for a race of people who by all means didn’t really appreciate it from his perspective. He’s heard people talk since the recent attacks and it almost always boiled down to two things. One- guardian incompetence, and two- not enough guardians. Then the solutions for these things were fucking _insane_ , like forcing Dhampirs into service. Talk had started after the first attack but after this last one? Solutions were being put forth and people wanted action _now_.

“Don’t you ever get… I don’t know, annoyed by all of this? You’ve trained your whole life to protect Moroi and you don’t get much out of it. Guardian salaries suck, your jobs could be with an excellent family or it could be with some jackass who treats you like shit and you _have_ to take it, and in the end it’s entirely possibly that you’ll die. Who wants a life like that?” Tony asks, shaking his head. Even Rhodey’s dedication to him baffled him.

Bucky considers Tony’s words for a long moment, “it’s what we’re trained to do. Be honest, would you prefer Rhodey _not_ protect you?” he asks. He thinks he has Tony there, he can see the smugness on his face and his aura.

Instead of answering he considers his words. Would he prefer Rhodey’s attentions elsewhere? Would he _really_? His first instinct is to say no because Rhodey is his best friend and this was an easy way to keep them together but realistically he and Rhodey have always been two peas in a pod. He doubted Rhodey’s friendship would go elsewhere if he wasn’t risking his life for Tony. But would he appreciate Rhodey’s training and service the way it should be appreciated? He wasn’t so sure and not because he didn’t have a strong appreciation for all the time and effort Rhodey went through to try and protect him. He didn’t want that because… because…

Because the last time Rhodey stuck his life on the line for him he _died_. It was luck that gave Tony the power to bring him back and even then things have never been the same. Rhodey lost so much more than just his life that day and Tony has felt guilty for it ever since.

“Yeah,” Tony says, “I would. He deserves his own life.” The answer shocks the hell out of Bucky and Tony gets it. Dhampirs, they were taught from birth pretty much that it was their jobs to serve guardians. The only reason women even wiggled out of that was because they chose to raise their kids a lot of the time. It occurs to Tony then that they might be taking the only feasible out they had to dying for Moroi. Even then they got absolute _hell_ for it given all the stereotypes about sleazy Dhampir women who were easy sex for Moroi men. They didn’t really escape anything, Tony realizes. Tough break.

“You actually believe that,” Bucky says, still shocked.

Tony shrugs, “of course I do. In what world is it fair to rob an entire race of people of their lives because you’re scared of what lurks in the dark? Don’t get me wrong I appreciate what you guys do but don’t you want your own lives?” he asks.

Bucky laughs though its more of a harsh sound, especially because it had to agitate his wounded stomach. “Our own lives never existed. If we run off we’re shamed and cut off from our communities, and if we chose to raise our children we’re shamed for that too. This is the only choice that gives us any sort of social mobility, you _have_ to realize that.”

No, Tony didn’t realize that because he didn’t need to. He’s a Moroi. Hell, he never even considered what non-Royals like Pepper went through with that whole precarious guardian situation until he was in that situation himself. “That’s not fair,” he says.

“Nothing in life is fair, Tony. Besides, a lot of us genuinely want the job. Rhodey does,” Bucky points out.

“Rhodey and the rest of you have been conditioned to want the job. As someone from the outside here what you guys do is insane. No one _wants_ your job; they take it out of necessity- you just admitted that yourself. Someone needs to fight but I don’t see why we aren’t the ones to do it given that it’s _our_ lives we’re protecting. We’re sending someone else out to fight our battle and conditioning them to be alright with their own subjugation.” That… pissed him off actually. Rhodey would never get his own life even if he wasn’t assigned as Tony’s guardian- and there was a good chance he wouldn’t be Tony’s guardian. How fair was that? It’s hardly the first time Tony has acknowledged that this was not the kind of sacrifice he’d made for anyone. It was unfair to expect Rhodey to give up all the things Tony never would simply because he was arrogant enough to assume his life was more important.

“And what do you suppose Moroi do? Because you’ll all die without guardians,” Bucky points out.

“We’re dying with them too,” Tony shoots back. “You aren’t saving us, and we hardly put in any effort to save ourselves. Maybe we should.” Historically speaking Moroi used to do all sorts of cool stuff with their magic. Hell, humans used to hail them as gods because they used to stop natural disasters and all sorts of other stuff and now they didn’t do much with their magic at all. Aside from water the elements would be relatively useful in a fight against Strigoi and his experience with Howard and his mom lighting him on fire proved that. He felt like that could be useful in a fight.

“Tony, you can’t even throw a punch. What the hell do you think you’d do in a fight?” Bucky asks, looking flabbergasted.

“Don’t be absurd, I wouldn’t try and _punch_ a Strigoi. If I used fire I’d just light the thing on fire. Or distract it by throwing rocks or something at it, air could knock the wind out of them. None of that would kill a Strigoi aside from the fire but it would buy a guardian more than enough time to get an opening to stake them. Plus Strigoi don’t expect you to fight back.” Howard clearly hadn’t expected resistance.

“But you _don’t_ use fire Tony. You heal stuff and what are you going to do with that? Heal a Strigoi?” Bucky says in an obviously sarcastic tone but _that_ was a thought. Bucky senses that he took it seriously and he shakes his head, “Jesus _Christ_ Tony, you can’t bring people back to life let alone _Strigoi_.”

“Well actually…” he says, telling Bucky what _actually_ happened with Rhodey. And making him promise to not tell Rhodey too. “I think that’s why the bond formed. What I’ve read on ‘shadow-kissed’ guardians seems to suggest that the Moroi they were bonded to saved them from death at some point. Beyond that I’m lost.”

Bucky just stares at him in shock and Tony supposes that makes sense. It wasn’t every day that you met a dude who could bring things back to life and he’s experienced Tony’s healing abilities, he knew he wasn’t lying about being good. “You… brought Rhodey back to _life_?” he asks.

He nods, “and I think it made his aura all dark and weird. It’s where ‘shadow-kissed’ comes from I think. Clearly the Moroi who made the term could also see auras. No idea what the shadows _are_ though.” And they weren’t curable, which worried Tony. He’s tried a few times since the first to heal Rhodey’s shadows and they never went anywhere. Sometimes Tony would notice a couple of spots went away and Rhodey was always in a better mood after those spots were healed out but Tony didn’t know what those were either. Rhodey didn’t have any of that mental instability Tony usually associated with black spots.

“Death,” Bucky says. “You brought Rhodey back to _life_ , you can’t just die and come back without that leaving a mark.”

 _You’re marked with death, I can see it_. Tony remembers Bucky’s telling him about his weird word salad to him and he hadn’t got it but it clicks now. “Have you… had any close calls?” he asks.

“I’m a guardian, it’s in the job description,” Bucky says. He clearly isn’t taking the question seriously and Tony huffs in annoyance.

“No, I mean have you been close to death or resuscitated or something?” he asks.

Bucky frowns but nods, “when I lost my arm, why?”

“Because I finally know what I meant when I told you you were marked by death. I don’t see it on you often, hardly ever really, but if I think hard enough I remember seeing shadows in your aura like Rhodey’s. I just didn’t make the connection because Rhodey’s shadows take up far more of his aura than the occasional shadows in yours.” The only other time he’s seen shadows like that, not that he thinks about it, is in Erik’s aura. There were a lot of dark spots there that indicated that he was _just_ this side of sane but there were other shadows in there too, ones that moved like Rhodey’s. Like he’s been killed and brought back a few times even if that made no sense. He would have had to have had that happen a hell of a lot if those shadows took up as much of his aura as it did and Tony wasn’t about to get cozy with the dude to find out what happened there.

“Jesus this is weird. Ever occurred to you that you should tell someone about this?” he asks. The poor guy looks shocked and confused.

“Yeah, but Rhodey told me not to. He’s probably worried that someone’ll run experiments on me or something.” To be fair he probably wasn’t wrong.

*

Tony spends far more time at Bucky’s than he anticipated but it was worth it to hear his stories about when he was in school. “Peggy must have threated to skin me at least twice a week,” Bucky says, shaking his head. “That woman has the patience of a saint when she feels like it.”

“When she feels like it being the important bit of that.” Tony knew that Peggy had _no_ patience when she didn’t feel like it too. She was a terrifying woman when people got on her nerves and back when Howard was still around Tony had always been enthused when Peggy told him off. Not many Dhampirs would have the balls to tell a very powerful Moroi to fuck himself sideways, _especially_ not a Dhampir woman, but Peggy was a badass. Secretly she had always been his childhood hero and Rhodey’s too. They used to glean information regarding her legendary status off of other guardians and Maria all the time. If Peggy noticed she never said anything about it but it wasn’t like her to accept being treated like a celebrity.

“Did I ever tell you about the pot brownie incident?” Bucky asks, looking down at Tony and grinning. He’s laying across the couch with his head in Bucky’s lap and it was… comfortable. It certainly wasn’t as odd as he thought it would have been given the ‘forbidden fruit’ status Bucky has given their relationship.

Tony grins, “no you haven’t. You’ve eaten edibles? They will fuck you _up_.” He had his own tales about eating some things he maybe shouldn’t have. Rhodey has damn near beat his ass for eating things he had no business eating a few times. One time Pepper actually did smack him, probably hoping some sense would come but all it did was piss him off. Maybe that’s why Rhodey has never followed through on his threats to literally smack some sense into Tony and in Pepper’s defense she felt terrible about it and apologized. Tony accepted it because he purposefully gave her the wrong information for a math test they had and she bombed it, which was a big deal for her.

“So I know. My friends and I, we used to call ourselves the Howling Commandos because we thought it was cool, decided to get wasted one night. It wasn’t abnormal but this time Mortia brought something else to the party and I was a reckless idiot at that point in my life. Mortia warned me but I ate a little and didn’t feel anything so I ate a little more. Nothing happened to I ate the whole thing and I saw the face of _god_ ,” he says and Tony cracks up.

Oh man, someone should have taken the brownie from Bucky before that happened. “Stop laughing, I went to church for _months_ before I renounced religion because sinning was more fun that being devout,” he says, flicking Tony. This only makes him laugh harder because Bucky Barnes as a devout Christian was hilarious.

“Once, when Rhodey and I were in the height of our party days, I found this plate of brownies-”

“Oh no,” Bucky says, interrupting and looking worried even though Tony clearly survived the incident.

“Oh yeah. I ate like seven before Pepper found me and flipped out because she happened to know they weren’t the average brownie. That night I saw Satan’s asshole and decided Christianity wasn’t for me.” That wasn’t totally true, he’d been an atheist before that, but damn that night he had been convinced if there was a god he was intent on smiting Tony in particular.

Bucky manages a quick laugh before his stomach prevents further giggles. Tony was tempted to heal him more but Bucky waves him off, sensing his line of thinking. “You ate _seven_ brownies and survived?” he asks.

“Pretty sure I went into a coma because I woke up in the hospital with no knowledge of how I got there but yeah, I lived.” Rhodey had cut him off from eating at parties until he vetted the food after that and it was honestly for the best.

“God, and I thought Peggy finding out about my pot brownie experience was bad. She found out and went and woke me up early the next day and made me run suicides so hard I thought she genuinely wanted me to die out there. She told me never to do something so stupid again and I listened.” Bucky grimaces, probably remembering those suicides and honestly Tony would too. The only times he ever ran was in in gym class as a kid and he did everything in his power to get out of those classes. Including breaking his ankle one time mostly on purpose. Rhodey had been _pissed_ but Tony only meant to sprain it, how was he supposed to know he’d land on it so funny?

“One time I was bothering Rhodey in one of his classes because his class was next to mine and Peggy threated to make me run suicides to I went to Italy for a week,” Tony says.

Bucky looks down at him to see if he was serious and he shakes his head when he determines that he is. “You went to Italy for a week to escape Peggy’s wrath?” he asks and Tony nods, “wise choice. Once when I was a young little brat I thought Peggy’s reputation was mostly made up so I told her to fuck off and Steve smuggling me out of school to Romania probably saved my life. She still gave me detention for a month before _and_ after class but in the end the extra training had been worth it. And I never said anything even remotely negative to her after that.”

“Howard, back when he was alive, was a total asshole,” Tony says slowly and Bucky looks surprised. Tony didn’t mention him when he was alive much if ever so he supposed it was warranted. “No one liked telling him where to stick his own ego but this one time he made the mistake of calling Peggy a blood whore and she straight up punched him in the face. Laid him flat on his ass and told him he could go to the guardians and tell them a blood whore beat him up. He never tested her again.”

Tony, on the inside, had been screaming in triumph because that was still his single greatest memory of Howard he had but on the outside he just looked shocked. He and Rhodey talked about that for _months_ because it was just that badass. Howard took a long time to heal from it too. He always suspected Peggy knew about the abuse too but she mostly kept her suspicions to herself, but that day she apparently had enough of Howard’s shit. Actually, now that Tony thought about it Howard and his mom had gotten in a nasty fight the night before and… well maybe she didn’t punch Howard just because he insulted her. But it was a good cover and Howard told everyone he fell.

Bucky’s eyebrows shot up, “your father seriously called Peggy a blood whore?” The look on his face suggested that he thought that was certain suicide and he wasn’t wrong. Howard’s ego was thoroughly murdered that day.

“Yup. And he got decked for his efforts. I sent her flowers anonymously.” They were nice too, and they didn’t smell like ass. Rhodey had helped pick them out because he knew how Dhampir noses worked. Tony’s nose was more sensitive than Dhampir noses but different things smelled more pleasant to Dhampirs than Moroi.

“You sent Peggy flowers for punching your dad in the face? Yikes,” Bucky says, wincing.

Tony shrugs, “Howard was a piece of shit. I wish Peggy had’ve staked him before he went Strigoi.” It surprises him, and Bucky, how much he means that. But the man was a nasty piece of work and the day he died was easily the best day of his life. It was also the worst day of his life but that was because of Rhodey dying and everything that happened after, not because Howard died.

“My father was an asshole too,” Bucky says softly. “Bit of a drinker. Didn’t like it much when I knocked him out when he decided it was a good idea to hit my mom. Didn’t help that I was fifteen. I think that bruised his massive ego.”

“Damn, you punched your dad out? My hero. If I could throw a punch I probably would have tried but I stuck to my strengths and purposefully opposed every single opinion my dad ever had and made sure the whole damn Court knew.” Back when he and Maria were still involved in Court life anyways, now they’ve been dropped like a bad habit yet again thanks to Howard’s shitty life choices. It was always him that screwed everything up.

“Best reaction you got out of Howard, go.” Bucky says, grinning down at Tony.

“The one time I suggested he should be removed from his position as the Stark prince due to moral impropriety and cited his mistress on the west coast as the proof. Got my ass beat for it but it was _so_ worth it to see the shock on everyone’s faces when I had real proof.” Howard had been livid but not as livid as Maria, who damn near threw him out of the house.

Bucky’s eyebrows shoot back up, “oh _damn_ , that’s hilarious! There’s no way that didn’t leave a huge mark on his social interactions. Man, that is _way_ better than just punching the guy given how that would follow him around. His own _kid_ renouncing his Royal position because he thought he was morally indecent. You’re _savage_.”

Tony grins, “so I’ve been told. There was a reason why I sat on the top of the social pyramid when I chose to be there. I’m good at reading people and gathering information, people didn’t like messing with me only to have all their dirty laundry aired to all.” He’s grateful that Bucky doesn’t mention that bit where Tony out and out admitted his father was abusive though. It used to bother him when he’d make casual reference to it and no one would react aside from Rhodey, who was probably plotting Howard’s murder, but now he was grateful for it. Howard left enough of a mark on his life; he didn’t need more concern over him.

Bucky shakes his head in wonder; “man Steve would have _loved_ you for that. He was never fond of the way people got away with things if they could pay people enough to keep their mouths shut. You two would probably take down the Moroi government together if you got bored on a rainy day.” Tony takes the compliment as high praise because Bucky didn’t mention Steve much and being compared to him had to be a good thing with how close they were. Steve sounded like a pretty cool guy anyways.


	17. Chapter 17

The last thing Tony expects to for his mother to wake him up by pounding on his door. He glares at her, hoping it would make her disappear but unfortunately it doesn’t work. “Get dressed, we’re going to the Court,” she tells him bluntly, looking very determined.

“I’d rather die,” Tony says and he goes to go back to him bed but Maria catches his arm. The Moroi Court was where pretty much anything important happened and he was not in the presence of mind to actually deal with politics. Or people.

“Anthony Edward Stark you will get yourself into the shower _right now_ and you will make yourself look presentable because we are going to the Court. That is final. Besides, they’re all debating what to do considering the recent attacks and the most popular decision is to push Dhampirs through school faster. I’m sure you wouldn’t want that for Rhodey,” she says, hitting him where it hurt. People liked to think Howard was the underhanded sneaky one but that was never true. He just bullied people until he got what he wanted, it was Maria who had all the finesse and it was her Tony learned from.

But now it was being used against him and he didn’t like it. “You can sleep on the plane,” she tells him and he finally heaves out a sigh and goes to shower. He’s tired, annoyed, and not at all pleased with the proceedings of the morning but he loved Rhodey and he was already aware that life for Dhampirs was more than unfair. No one should essentially be forced to protect a race of people that, in Tony’s experience, were hardly grateful for it. He’s heard the whispers of what Royals in particular thought they should do, how Dhampirs should respond to the recent atrocities. Strangely not one argument put forth by Royals at least involved them actually doing something to protect themselves. Non-Royals, _they_ had ideas and some have even gotten vocal or started learning new ways to use their magic like Pepper had. But that was because they had far less access to guardians than Royals did. He wondered how their approach would differ if they weren’t left to fend for themselves.

Still, he had no desire to see people like Rhodey forced into a position they should never have to be in. They were already getting the shit end of the stick, even if Bucky and Rhodey would tell him- _have_ told him- that they didn’t mind. Tony didn’t think it mattered if the people who were being served an unjust position cared if it was unjust- if it’s wrong it should change. Period. So he goes even though he knows no one will listen to him or Maria, not after what Howard did and especially not so soon. Anyone with an immediate relation to them was treated like they were Strigoi too even though not one of them had anything to do with Howard’s actions. The man was like a disease, ruining everything around him. Tony has always hated him for that.

He’s surprised when he’s met by Peggy, Bucky, and Rhodey though. Yeah, guardians generally accompanied kids when they left the school but he had, for some reason, assumed he’d be in the same position he usually was. Unprotected, at least by people with training. “They’re bringing you? No offense,” he says to Rhodey. He was just surprised and thankfully due to the bond Rhodey knew that.

Rhodey nods, “yeah, something about this being a training exercise to prepare me for the real world and all that. No idea why I’d be doing that at the _Court_ given that it’s more protected than the _school_ having the Queen in it and all of that but alright.” Tony can tell that this annoys him and he laughs, earning a dirty look from Rhodey.

“You’ll still have to be on guard on the way to and from the Court,” Peggy points out. “Now stop whining and get in your proper position.” She doesn’t tell him _what_ position that is or give him any other instructions but apparently Rhodey knows what she means because he goes to stand beside Bucky. They set off and Tony doesn’t think much more about positions of guardians because this was above his knowledge base. Of course he’s read up on the subject but Bucky had a point when he told him theory and practice were two different things. Rhodey had all that practical knowledge that Tony was missing.

“You look fancy,” Rhodey tells him when they’re in the car headed to the airport. This was an absurdly long trip for a debate but Tony figured it much be important if his mother was dragging him to it. Not that he had any idea why she bothered given that Howard ruined any chance they had at being taken seriously.

“Mom told me to look dapper,” he says, “not that it’ll help.”

“Sure it will, just keep your mouth shut and let me do the talking. I’ve been doing a good job distancing us from Howard and this is a good way for us to get back into the fray,” she says, eyes shrewd. Obviously she had some kind of plan but what that was he wasn’t privy to, at least not yet.

“Depends on what side everyone else is on. Clearly you’re not on board with pushing Dhampirs through school faster and if that’s the more popular opinion, well. We’re double fucked,” Tony points out. Royal politics was a popularity contest and if you didn’t agree with popular opinions you were generally froze out. Tony had been lucky his rather… _liberal_ views hadn’t gotten him froze out earlier in his life but he was charismatic and good at arguing when he wanted to be. It meant that, at least in the school’s sheltered environment, he had won the popularity contest. There was no way they’d win an opinion at all now even if they were on the same side as the more popular Royals.

“They want to _what_?” Rhodey snaps. “That’s insane, they can’t do that!” he all but yells.

“Control yourself,” Peggy snaps at him and Rhodey goes back to that impassive face he and all the rest of the guardians had mastered long ago. Tony though, because he knew Peggy and Bucky well, could see that they agreed. Their auras reflected approval at Rhodey’s outrage too.

“The opinions are pretty much deadlocked. If I can manage to sway them back in the right direction so we don’t send _children_ into battle then I’ll have both done the right thing and insinuated myself back into Court life,” Maria says. Smart, Tony thinks, except he had no idea why she’d even bother with the politics. He’s never been fond even if he was good at it. When he says as much to Maria she sighs, “you have no idea how useful being in this position can be for you Tony. I wouldn’t bother with it if I it wasn’t for you, you shouldn’t have to suffer the consequences of Howard’s actions and this is the easiest way to ensure you get what’s fair.”

Tony had no idea what that meant but they had reached the airport so he ignores that in favor of trying to sleep on the damn plane. Of course it doesn’t work because he’s never slept well, but especially after he’s been up for awhile even if he was pretty tired. Thankfully the plane ride wasn’t very long- a few hours, and they land at the Court relatively safe minus Rhodey’s plane sickness. He didn’t like flying, never had, and Tony gently reaches out with his magic to quell his stomach. Rhodey glares at him for it but he shrugs. He wouldn’t want to feel sick all day if he had to guard some Moroi so he figured he’d touch Rhodey a little with the magic and solve his problem.

Maria informs him that they’re apparently staying the night, which causes him to groan in annoyance because he didn’t bring clothes and also because he was going to miss _two_ of those lessons with Charles now. He said he found some promising things and Tony was excited about it even if his guardian freaked him out. Of course Maria had anticipated this visit being longer than what she told Tony so she had packed him a bag while he was in the damn shower. Of _course_. So they went off to drop their things in their rooms before they were expected to show up to this debate thing.

Rhodey shadows Tony as they move around, which was both weird and cool given how in sync they were. They were usually like this when they were in school so Tony had to wonder if Rhodey made an effort to _be_ in sync with Tony or to _avoid_ being in sync with Tony. He guessed the second one. “You know I’m not about to die here, right?” Tony asks as he drops his bag in his room. Peggy and Maria took the room across the hall and thankfully Tony, Bucky, and Rhodey had been given their own rooms. He wondered why Peggy would be in a room with his mom but he figured they might be talking strategy with Peggy’s insider guardian knowledge. It would be smart to do so considering he doubted any Moroi consulted guardians _or_ Dhampirs about their own fate.

“I also know this is a test and I’m not about to fail it. You know Peggy’s word goes a long way in getting us jobs,” he says. Yeah, he did, which was half why he wanted Rhodey to fail it. No one in their right mind was going to give someone as good as Rhodey to _Tony_. He’d be off guarding the Queen or some other Royal politician or lawyer. Tony doesn’t respond to Rhodey as they crossed the hall so Rhodey could drop off his own bag. Apparently _he_ got to know about their overnight trip but Tony didn’t.

“Are you alright?” Rhodey asks as he drops his bag on his bed. He looks concerned but Tony doesn’t see why he needed to. He was fine and he tells Rhodey so. “I don’t know man, you seem more irritated than normal. You aren’t feeling like… well you know,” he says eventually, waving a hand around a little helplessly.

Tony sighs, “I’m fine Rhodey, really. So, want to go watch me probably butcher all my mom’s careful work in securing my future playing Royal games when I go tell all those twats that they’re a bunch of fucking idiots if they lower the legal guardian age?”

Rhodey laughs and shakes his head, “eloquent, Stark. You know you could always leave your mom’s work in tact and actually argue like a normal person, right? You’re good at it and you have a natural charisma. People would listen.”

He sounds like he really believes that but he forgets that he’s probably one of five people in the Moroi world that don’t think he’s about to turn Strigoi at any moment. And his father cursed him with his looks so not only did he have to live with his father’s stigma but he also had to look just like him too. Fucking prick. Okay, maybe Rhodey had a point about him being touchier than usual but still. He doesn’t bother to argue with Rhodey though and they go when Bucky pokes his head in to draw them out.

To Tony’s surprise they don’t go to the usual meeting places around the Court, they go straight to the Council Chambers. This did not bode well. Usually they talked issues out and _then_ the Council- people representing each Royal family and the reigning monarch- would vote on the issue at hand. Clearly people were in much more of a panic outside of school than they were in it if this was going almost straight to the Council. The guardians flit to the side of the room like they always did in moments like this and Maria and Tony head to the audience section. People whisper but neither of them responds to it. They’ve both heard it all anyways so they move to a spot in the front and ignore the way people avoided sitting near them. Poor Maria looked stressed but Tony didn’t care.

Wanda- the current Queen and not someone Tony was fond of- stands eventually and calls for people to stop speaking. The room quiets and they present the issue- Moroi being picked off at an alarming rate- and what guardians were supposed to do about it. Tony makes note of the arguments and who was representing each Royal family. He had a lot of dirt on a lot of people and he was unafraid to air it just to be a dick. Give people something else to talk about before they off and ruined some Dhampir lives. Rhodey was probably the only one who had any idea what was about to happen, which would make it all the more amusing. This was at least the kind of proceeding that the audience got a way in so Tony wasn’t about to look like a fool when he told them they were all a bunch of assholes.

The arguments, thus far, were pushing Dhampirs through school faster but they had no evidence that that would be affective. Ineffective guardians weren’t what anyone wanted so that argument had a major flaw in it. The next most popular argument was forcing Dhampir women into service and that must of hit some kind of cord with Bucky because his aura blazes red so hard and fast that it almost eclipses Rhodey, who was standing beside him and also quite disgusted. The last argument was some ludicrous nutball who suggested using _compulsion_ on Dhampirs to force them to serve. At that Tony stands up, shaking off his mother when she tries to drag him back down. Rhodey tenses, knowing what was about to come and Tony can thank his lucky stars that Rhodey’s own emotions were probably running high enough that he had a good chance of not slipping into Tony’s head by accident.

“Are you people fucking insane?” he asks, drawing attention very quickly. He’s surprised when a lot of people flinch and collectively the fear in the room shoots up from everyone minus Wanda. Points to her. “Your arguments here, to sum them up, are to send children into battle, force people who don’t want to be guardians to be guardians, and use _compulsion_ on people to get them to do what you want? You have _got_ to be kidding me.”

Wanda watches him with shrewd eyes and stands as well; drawing even more attention to his words because it was obvious she was taking him seriously. Um, _what_? “And what are _your_ solutions, Tony? Do enlighten us on what insight a seventeen year old could possibly add to this situation,” she says. Ah, so her tactic here was to delegitimize him and remind him of his youth. Bad move on her part.

“Oh, so sixteen year old Dhampirs can give their lives for us but I, someone who is a year older than that, can’t have opinions? I see how it is. You know I find it astounding that not one person here brought up an obvious solution- we fight back. With magic,” he adds so no one could misunderstand him. All hell breaks loose at that point and Tony sees the approval shining bright on Rhodey’s face and in his aura for just a moment before he schools his features back into that guardian calm. Then worry spikes in the colors of his aura as he realizes Moroi fighting back meant _Tony_ fighting back.

Wanda looks irritated but her aura indicates that he’s sent her into a rage and he was more than prepared to use that against her. She was the idiot who brought age up. Other people in the room, whether they agreed with that solution or not, were forced to take Tony’s side on the age argument at least. They didn’t need to agree with his solution to see the extreme hypocrisy in how Wanda had treated him versus how she was apparently prepared to treat Dhampirs.

“We can’t fight back, we’ll die!” one of the Council members shouts. Vankov. Tony isn’t surprised, they were all a bunch of lily livered jackasses minus Ivan Vankov, who was at least willing to try and settle his matters with Tony himself even if Rhodey made sure that didn’t go as planned.

“We’re already dying in case you haven’t noticed,” Tony shoots back. “We’ve tried doing nothing and we’ve tried guardians, neither have worked. Pushing guardians out faster only ensures that we’re ruining the lives of _children_ and Dhampirs only get eighteen years of life to themselves as it is. You can’t take more away from them than you already have. Using compulsion should be out for obvious and extremely immoral reasons, and the same with forcing women into service. We have magic, we should use it.”

Beside him Maria actually looks impressed. “That would never work!” someone else- Xavier- shouts.

“It did for me,” Maria says, throwing her opinion in looking determined. “The guardians are being forced to do all the work by themselves when they don’t need to. Tony is right, if we use magic we can buy them valuable seconds they need to kill Strigoi. That was how Peggy killed Howard.” It was a good tactic, Tony thinks, because people were both uncomfortable and forced to admit that she was right. It _did_ work.

“That’s one case,” Xavier shoots back and Tony snorts.

“Better than the no cases you have for pushing Dhampirs through school faster and you best not show up with a single example of a Dhampir who proves themselves capable of killing Strigoi that young. One example isn’t enough by your own estimations,” Tony says and Xavier turns bright red and Tony grins maliciously. So he guessed his plan right and now he had it unraveled before it even formed. _Ha_.

“We don’t use our magic like that, in case you forgot we’re the _peaceful_ vampires,” a new voice throws in. Stark. Well this ought to make things interesting now that Tony was arguing with a distant relative. He could see the relation though so maybe not too distant.

“We use magic to charm stakes and those kill Strigoi. That isn’t far off from what I’m suggesting,” he points out. “Are you telling me it’s okay to use magic explicitly for violent ends but only when it’s convenient for Moroi?”

“That’s hardly the same,” she sputters out and she’s right, but she isn’t confident in her statement. Confidence was key in things like this and thankfully Tony had it in spades.

“Isn’t it? I mean we hardly charm stakes with each element to tickle Strigoi; we do it to kill them. There is no other purpose for that magic except blatant murder, _necessary_ murder. If we can use magic to kill via stakes we can learn how to use our magic to the benefit of guardians so they can kill Strigoi more efficiently. They would also have less to worry about given that we would be proactive instead of sitting there uselessly like a bunch of tits on logs.” Not exactly eloquent but it did the trick.

“That’s suicide!” Xavier throws out, joining the argument again.

“So is sitting around, which you’re suggesting we continue. What’s the difference?” he asks bluntly. Beside him Maria lets out a small ‘oooo’. “Plus mom already said it best- using magic worked and bought her enough time for Peggy to show up and kill Howard. She saved three lives that day by actually getting off her Royal ass and _doing_ something. Your method has already gotten several families _slaughtered_. Please explain to me why you think _I’m_ the one advocating suicide here.”

Xavier turns red and starts sputtering again because he had no argument when Tony put it like that. It was clear most of the room thought he was nuts but his argument held more water than the others so they were stuck. They didn’t want to agree, but he’s smacked away disagreements easily enough that they couldn’t really disagree either. Not when their objections were all the same as the ones he’s out and out dismissed with a surprising amount of efficiency.

“Maria lashed out with magic in an emotional time, Moroi aren’t naturally built to use their magic that way,” Wanda says calmly. Damn, that he _didn’t_ have an argument for and she knew it given her smug look.

Except it turned out his mom was a secret _badass_ because she laughs. “Like hell we aren’t,” she says and suddenly the papers in front of the Queen burst into flame and the room descends into _true_ chaos.

*

“I could kiss you,” Bucky says to Tony after he finds him and his mom. They had been promptly dragged out after Maria lit the Queen’s stuff on fire so Tony made sure to shout all the way out about how they were all a bunch of cowards forcing everyone else to fight their battles for them. It probably didn’t help his argument but it was true.

“I wouldn’t mind,” Tony says, grinning and getting elbowed by his mom. “What? Who in their right mind wouldn’t want to kiss Bucky, he’s hot.” That was hardly his fault; it was just a simple fact.

“How did things go after we left?” Maria asks. She looks focused and determined so Tony guessed that she’s jumped on his argument and was choosing to ride it out. He supposed he understood why given that Tony’s argument actually did hold true for her.

Bucky laughs, “it was _chaos_. Tony, you sold a good argument because people were actually considering it. Not many and from what I saw most of them weren’t Royal but some sorry sucker brought up unequal distribution of guardians and pointed out that if Royals were going to continue running the Moroi world only to benefit them then non-Royal Moroi had a right to learn how to use magic to defend themselves. That was a good punch but probably not to Royals given that the punch was aimed at them. It was convincing enough to the non-Royals in the room though. Still, your argument got enough people to be loud enough to stave off any law changes, which is what Dhampirs need right now.”

He looks genuinely impressed and his aura reflects that, shining bright with approval and something else Tony doesn’t recognize. “Well, I wasn’t about to stand by when Moroi were about to throw _children_ into a war that really isn’t theirs. Strigoi prefer Moroi blood, its mostly us that they’re after and Dhampirs are gracious enough to allow Moroi to brainwash them into protecting us. No offense, but that’s what Dhampir socialization is.” Maria considers it and then nods, not really unable to argue that. Bucky looks like he wants to but he also knows there’s a kernel of truth to Tony’s argument even if he can see in Bucky’s aura that he rejects that statement.

“Do you think Tony’s arguments will extend beyond the Court?” Maria asks.

Bucky nods, “almost certainly if for no other reason than how absolutely insane it is. People aren’t happy about how easily he argued his point. Those that will be convinced will listen and those that don’t are sure to talk about it.”

Tony rolls his eyes, “those that are against it will reiterate the same tired ‘that’s suicide’, ‘we don’t use our magic like that’, and ‘that’s not what tradition tells us to do’ arguments instead of coming up with real, _tangible_ arguments. Besides, if we _really_ wanted to follow tradition we’d out ourselves to humans, comingle with them again, and start using our magic to help them grow crops and stuff like we used to. _And_ there was a time when Moroi used magic to aid guardians, but maybe that’s _too_ traditional for traditionalists,” he says snidely. Traditions were useless if they were outdated.

Maria’s eyebrows shoot up, “do you have actual evidence of Moroi using magic to aid guardians?” she asks. Tony gives her the names of the books he found the information in and she makes note of them. “That is a genuinely good argument, as is the one on tradition. It shows that traditions are only as useful as the times they find themselves in. They’re subject to change when times do, just like everything else. You should think about being a politician,” Maria says and Tony laughs.

“ _Hell_ no. I was planning on disappearing into the human world and learning how to build cool things with all their tech. Have you _seen_ the things they can do?” He has and he was interested. His plan seems to disappoint his mom but he was used to disappointing his parents so he didn’t really care about that.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for some mentions of drug and alcohol abuse.

Rhodey couldn’t possibly be more proud of his best friend for what he did in that Council room. And he didn’t do it with any of his unusually strong compulsion even though he could have. But Tony was bright and strong when he argued, he could draw a lot of attention and a crowd and his time in the Council Chambers was no exception. Tony stood tall, his words and arguments were clear and it paid off for him in the end. People listened, _actually_ listened and even if that was generally the group that had small amounts of power- non-Royals- it counted. His argument gave them hope where they had none before like Loki had with Pepper accidentally.

And the guardians, they all agreed at least in part. He doubted many agreed with sending _Moroi_ into fights like Tony implied would happen but none of them wanted sixteen year old Dhampirs sent into the field. “Thank you,” he tells Tony when he finds him after the Council lets them out.

Tony frowns, “for what?” he asks and Rhodey can feel him trying to remember if he did something for Rhodey recently. Moments like this one were why he loved Tony so much. He was genuinely good and he didn’t expect anything in return for it.

“For giving those Council members something to think about and for complicating their arguments. You probably saved a lot of lives today Tony.” Council meetings didn’t happen unless they were close to a decision on an issue and Tony made sure that that decision wasn’t about to happen without a good discussion of _all_ their options even if Rhodey didn’t agree with Tony’s assessment. Moroi weren’t meant to fight, magic or no. They just weren’t.

“Probably not, I can guarantee that they’re going to lower the guardian age regardless of the outrage it’ll cause. That’s the only viable option anyone here sees.” His tone is blunt, matter-of-fact.

“That is… there is no way they will do that because it’s _insane_. If they think what’s going on now is bad they haven’t seen anything yet, sending unprepared Dhampirs out into the field is going to result in way more lives lost. It’s a big mistake to make,” Rhodey says. He knew better than anyone and Tony suddenly perks up.

“Would you be willing to testify to that? Because you were the age that they’re planning on setting the new standard at and you didn’t just lose the fight, you _died_. My way worked and theirs didn’t all in one go, _oh_ this is good!” he says, excitement rising but Rhodey is stunned.

“I’m sorry, what? I… I didn’t die Tony, I got thrown against a wall and passed out.” He says it like it’s a fact but Tony let that slip completely by accident and he could hear the truth to Tony’s words, _feel_ the truth through the bond.

Tony’s mistake occurs to him too late and he can feel as well as see Tony blanch. “Oh. You… you’re going to want to sit,” Tony says softly.

Rhodey doesn’t want to fucking sit but he does because it meant he’d get what was going on here faster. “You didn’t get knocked unconscious when Howard tossed you into that wall,” Tony says softly, looking at his hands. “You’re used to being knocked around like that so it didn’t really phase you too much. You got back up but he was faster and you underestimated him so… so…” he stops and Rhodey can feel Tony’s emotions rise. He was scared, probably of how Rhodey would react and of Howard, conflicted because he’s managed to keep this secret so long, and guilty for keeping it. “He snapped your neck, Rhodey. You died that day and I brought you back,” Tony whispers.

He shakes his head even though he keeps getting snippets of Tony’s memories that confirm what Tony is telling him. “No, that’s not… you can’t bring the dead back to life,” he whispers.

“You can,” Tony says softly but firmly, “because I did. You’re head turned clean around like some fucked up owl. You were dead, I know you were, but I brought you back. I did it just before my mom showed up to light Howard on fire. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you but you were already so… fragile I guess, I just didn’t want to make it worse.”

 _Him_ , fragile? Compared to Tony that had to be some kind of bad joke. Tony was the one going off the rails all the time, he was the one with drug and alcohol problems, and he was the one Rhodey was always saving. _He_ was the fragile one. Rhodey was around to protect him, mostly from himself, because he was the strong one and he always had been. Except he could see a kind of strength in Tony that hadn’t been there last year or even a couple months ago. Tony had grown like he had; also because of Howard’s actions, and he didn’t much resemble the party boy Rhodey used to pull out of the gutter semi frequently. Tony was… well even at his worst lately he wasn’t anything like he used to be. He might be out of control but not in the same way and it takes Rhodey a moment to realize he’s scared by that.

He knew how to handle Tony when he was being a drunk asshole chasing after sex, but he had no idea how to handle the Tony who drank to forget his problems and to dull his strange power. That was something new altogether and now he had a whole new scope for Tony’s power. He could bring the _dead_ back to _life_. Jesus that was big.

“I don’t think it’s me you should be worried about. Tony, when you use that magic things happen to you. The more you use it the more that bad stuff happens, that’s probably why you were in a mood earlier,” he says even though when he checked that dark mood did what it did last time Rhodey found it and disappeared. Which had been more than a little frustrating. “You _brought me back to life_ man, what the hell do you think that did to you?” No wonder he’s been drinking more, taking pills and other drugs in secret, and cutting himself off from people. Using _compulsion_ sometimes drove him to do those things let alone bringing people back to _life_.

“I’m less worried about what it did to me and more worried about what it did to you. I’ve done research Rhodey and those guardians that had bonds to their Moroi? All of them have a history in which they were saved by the Moroi that they have a bond with. Whatever I did there I accidentally connected you to me for life and let me tell you those bonded guardians don’t have pleasant lives. Most of them commit suicide.” Rhodey can feel Tony’s worry and logically he knew he should be worried too but something occurs to him then.

“You’re not mentally stable, and it’s obviously linked to that magic. Didn’t you say Charles also had problems with substance abuse and stuff?” he asks and Tony nods. “Well… what if our connection runs deeper than we know. What if those guardians were like… I don’t know, absorbing that insanity. Don’t look at me like that, I can feel what you feel, see what you see, and hear what you hear even when I’m not directly in your head. It makes sense,” he says. And his moods have been as strange as Tony’s lately.

“That… we have no evidence for that,” Tony says, sounding disturbed.

“Maybe not, but it would explain why your moods have been better and mine have been worse.” Tony frowns at him then and Rhodey realizes he didn’t really tell Tony much about that. Looks like neither one of them were good at communicating with each other even with a bond. “Maybe that’s why my aura is so dark, you said that’s usually because of mental health issues.”

Tony shakes his head though, “no, I’ve seen those in your aura and if you’re right they’re _my_ mental health issues that you’ve accidentally absorbed. But the rest of the shadows? I can’t heal those out like I can with the others. Your aura is just… dark. I think it’s because you died and would have stayed dead if it wasn’t for me. Resuscitation looks different,” he says, examining the air around Rhodey.

“How do you know what resuscitation looks like?” he asks. How many people did he know that could have died and been brought back?

“Bucky,” Tony tells him, shrugging.

Rhodey frowns, wondering what was going on with those two. Both of them might deny it but _something_ was going on there, he just didn’t know what.

*

Loki meets the guy at the edge of the school’s property wearing dramatically large sunglasses. He loathed the sun and had no idea how the hell Tony could handle being out in it as much as he was but he had a job to do. “You better be prepared to do your part,” someone snaps from behind him. Loki turns and finds the annoyed human he was looking for and rolls his eyes not that he could see past the black tint on Loki’s glasses.

“You’re just annoyed that I have a better position than you and an even better one lined up,” he accuses, snatching the package from the human’s hand.

“No idea why, you’re a slimy bastard who will kill anyone who gets in his way,” the human snarls distastefully. Loki shrugs because he takes no offense to his ambition being guessed at. Besides, life with Strgioi had already been proven to be better than life with Moroi. They were more… cut throat and Loki could appreciate that.

“They know I’m a useful asset. You’re only useful because you’re human. Are things still running as expected?” he asks.

“Don’t fuck this up,” is all the human says and he stomps off, annoyed that Loki was better at being useful and productive than he was. That was hardly his fault though.

He walks back to the school wondering how he was going to get this done. He had rather hoped that Tony would help him out with his task given how intelligent he was but sadly he had hangups Loki hadn’t anticipated and that pesky guardian of his. _Both_ pesky guardians of his actually. Though Barnes was something Loki _really_ hadn’t anticipated. Perhaps he would use that to his advantage.

Regretfully though it looked like Tony was not going to be an ally as he hoped but he could still be a useful distraction in the meantime. He was trying to make Barnes jealous last Loki knew and Loki has always been fond of mischief and disrupting people’s lives. Tony too, which was why Loki attached himself to him, and his past of course. Tony had disappeared off to the Court though so for two days he had been stuck with Pepper Potts, who admittedly had a rather high power level for the commonwealth, and she was boring to him. There was nothing interesting for him to play around with, not like Tony. He had issues Loki had easily manipulated and that best friend of his that was easy to piss off, not to mention the guardian _no one_ seemed to realize was in a relationship with a _student_. Tony was scandalous and Pepper was… driven but ultimately useless to him.

Of course Tony was a lot less fun when he came back from Court distant to him. It was almost amusing watching how people reacted to Tony’s newfound love of magic as a weapon, though. And Loki had to admit he was good at arguing his point. It didn’t help that the arguments against were mostly related to tradition and Tony had already sorted those. Someone had snidely pointed out that Tony _would_ argue for something he couldn’t even participate in due to his lack of specialization, which had prompted him to roll his eyes and tell the student that he had other methods of being useful. Rhodey had looked horrified at the very suggestion and Loki had to wonder when Tony was going to stop being dense and figure out that he _had_ specialized. He gave him those texts for a reason but he was reading all the wrong sections.

Loki has never met anyone like Tony before and he had been curious about his magic but Tony kept a tight control on it. Strange considering the texts that Loki read on Tony’s element suggested control wasn’t exactly their strong suit. They were empathetic, calibrated to help because that was how their magic worked though it wasn’t without a dark side. Loki was glad to know his own elemental control would _not_ drive him insane though it wouldn’t matter soon even if it did.

Tony remains distant though and with some careful observation Loki notices why that is. Hmm, so it looked like him and Barnes kissed and made up- literally. Maybe he’d tell someone about that before he followed through on his plans with the school. But if he did he wouldn’t be around to see it and what was the point in causing mischief if he didn’t get to see the results of the mischief? It would be fun to leave more than one mess to clean up though… He’d consider it.


	19. Chapter 19

Tony curls up next to Bucky on his couch, gently feeling out his stomach wound with his magic. It had healed well thanks to his extra help but he had been worried, especially since Bucky volunteered himself to go to the Court with him, Rhodey, and his mom. He had wondered about that given his recently attacked status but apparently Bucky was a reckless idiot.

“I don’t know why you’re so worried, guardians are built for this sort of thing,” Bucky tells him, pressing his lips into Tony’s hair.

“First off no you aren’t, if you were there’d be no reason for you to train for years to gain the skill you have. Also why are you so fond of throwing yourself into danger? Seriously, it’s disturbing,” Tony tells him matter-of-factly.

Bucky snorts, “you’re one to talk. You’ve told me how your magic works for you, how it works for Charles too. You really shouldn’t be using it and yet you go ahead with reckless abandon. I don’t see why you’re so fond of literally driving yourself insane.”

“Uh excuse you I do it with a purpose. You were hurt and also I don’t like when people act like I’m Howard,” he says. Never mind when things tip a little too far over the edge like they had earlier in the week. He’d been arguing, something he seemed to be doing a lot of recently, and his natural charisma made the words stand out to people like Rhodey said, even if they didn’t buy what he was selling. But Hammer had a way of getting on Tony’s nerves and he sort of snapped on the guy. He didn’t really want to think of what he would have done without Charles around to snap him out of it almost immediately. Not that it mattered given that the kind of compulsion Tony tapped into had made Hammer see some shit and now he was intent on avoiding Tony.

The dark side of the kind of mind control Charles had or so Charles said. It was what he had used on his brother when he finally snapped, but unlike Charles he hadn’t heard voices afterwards. He still had no idea how to do the telepathy thing but to be fair Charles couldn’t heal for shit. They’ve tried teaching each other but it was slow going and difficult but they _did_ learn that Tony absolutely had an affinity for healing mental health problems, which came in handy when Rhodey decided it was a good idea to explore Tony’s thunderous mood post-Hammer. Charles had looked some shocked when he watched the stormy mood go from Tony’s aura to Rhodey’s. Rhodey had brought up a theory that he was sucking up Tony’s insanity but he had dismissed it because that wasn’t how the bond worked; it only ever went one way so why would something from Tony go to him?

Charles suspected it was because of the nature of the magic they used but had no real answers aside from definitive proof that Rhodey was definitely sucking up Tony’s mental health issues. The good news was that Tony, unbeknownst to him, had been healing it out when he was trying to heal the black that dominated Rhodey’s aura. He _told_ Tony the one day at the feeders that he had put him in a better mood but he dismissed that too because he couldn’t heal bad moods. It never occurred to him that Rhodey had been in more than a bad mood and it probably didn’t occur to Rhodey either given his usual mental stability. Tony was now doing his best to use the magic less but it called to him. Charles said the same thing though he’s done better with it in later years. Tony hoped he got better because his creepy guardian still had his eye on Tony and he didn’t like it.

“We do what we do with a purpose too, regardless of what we’re socialized to think,” Bucky tells him, snapping Tony out of his thoughts. Of course he’d add that last bit and Tony rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, but I get real pay off. You got your arm ripped off,” he points out.

“You get insane. Have you and Charles found anything on what element you guys are even using?” he asks.

Tony shakes his head, “no. We know we’re tapping into _something_ we just don’t know what.” It was irritating both him and Charles because they were both researchers and evidence based thinkers. They had all the evidence they just couldn’t find the damn name for it.

“Maybe some weird way to use air, it’s associated with the mind,” Bucky says.

“But not with healing, which is my primary ability. That would be more associated with earth but earth users can’t heal _people_. And auras aren’t associated with anything.” They’ve been over and _over_ the elements and at this point they thought they were working some other element altogether. That would make more sense but there are only four of the damn things.

“Hmm,” Bucky says quietly, “well maybe we should just ignore all of that and just enjoy our time together.”

Tony is super on board with that so he drops all thoughts of Rhodey, insanity, and strange elemental power from his mind and focuses on Bucky. Not that it’s hard considering how attractive he is. Bucky grins at him, pressing a kiss to his lips and Tony melts into it. How Bucky even found the time to perfect his kissing skills Tony didn’t know but there were all those rumors about him being a bit of a player when he was in school. Tony found it hard to believe now that he was older. He pulls back for a moment and looks at Bucky’s ever-present bun. “Seriously, I want to know the logistics of how you manage to put your hair up with one hand every day,” he says and Bucky makes an offended noise.

“If _that_ is what you’re thinking about while kissing me I am not doing a good job,” he says.

“Don’t take offense, I think of weird things no matter what I’m doing,” he tells Bucky, grinning as Bucky presses him back into the couch and kisses him in earnest.

*

Tony is headed back to the dorm feeling lightheaded and dopey in a good way when he runs into Loki. It wasn’t entirely unexpected though he did find it odd that he was out this early in the morning. Well, night. The sun had just dropped fully, meaning classes would start in an hour or so but most students didn’t get up until right at this moment. It had been the reason Tony had been at Bucky’s at this time, no one was around to see him walk back because they’d only just be hitting snooze on their alarms. “Oh, hey Loki-” the rest of his response is cut off when he notices just how _pale_ Loki is. Unnaturally pale. And he hadn’t heard Loki approach…

He was almost afraid to actually look at Loki’s eyes but some kind of morbid curiosity draws his gaze up and not for the first time Tony curses his shortness. Most Moroi were all and slim but he got hit with a stray short gene. Now he was particularly annoyed with it because he didn’t want to feel small, not when he noticed the red in Loki’s eyes. He swallows hard and hopes to hell that his bond with Rhodey was awake enough to feel the ice cold terror that just hit his mind. He wonders briefly if Rhodey would hear him if he outright called for him. Maybe.

 _Rhodey, Rhodey,_ **_Rhodey_**! He calls in his mind, feeling rather like a fool for it given that he had no idea if this was working. “I thought wards kept Strigoi out,” he says, sounding distant to his own ears.

Loki laughs, “they can’t do much if we’re already _in_. Not that it would matter either way, I made sure the wards were down before I killed some poor guardian who didn’t see it coming.”

“You would have had to incapacitate them first, they’re pretty nasty when provoked,” Tony says. He had no idea why he was talking, why _Loki_ was responding.

 _RhodeyRhodeyRhodey_ he chants in his mind, hoping to hell his best friend heard him.

“I hope you know that bond of yours can’t save you, Tony. There’s no way Rhodey could get all this way in time and he isn’t armed with a charmed silver stake like the rest of the guardians on the school property. I was _hoping_ that you might join me given that it would make my job here easier but sadly you’re as brainwashed as everyone else, hating Strigoi because they aren’t like you,” he says almost sadly. It was disturbing.

“Strigoi are unnatural,” Tony says, stepping back when Loki steps forward.

“Strigoi are strong and Moroi are weak, you were bound to all die anyways. Dhampirs have merit but unfortunately they aren’t very fond of us. You might as well accept your death, Tony, because I’m going to kill you.” Loki takes another step forward and he steps back again.

“Then you’re doing an awful lot of talking instead of getting to the point. Are you going to bore me to death?” he asks, cursing his snarky nature when Loki’s too pale hand reaches out to grab him. Tony braces himself, prepared to die at any moment but on a stroke of luck he’s shoved out of the way.

He expects Rhodey because he’s been calling to him for the last few minutes but it isn’t, it’s Bucky. Loki tries to hit him but Bucky is _fast_ and he dodges it easily. He tries to swipe Loki with his stake but all he does is leave a scratch because Loki leaned back too fast. He still snarls in pain though and lunges for Bucky. Bucky dodges but he isn’t as lucky as last time and Loki clips him, almost knocking him off balance but he rights himself quickly. Loki seems to realize this is a losing battle because he lunges for _Tony_ instead. Tony does the only thing he can think of and he throws up his hands but to his _intense_ surprise this actually stops Loki. He’s frozen there with Tony watching him in shock.

 _Telekinesis_ his mind supplies. It was possible, or he and Charles thought it was possible from their research but neither one of them had been able to do anything other than give themselves a headache trying to use it. Bucky stares at him, frozen because he doesn’t know what’s happening either and Tony prides himself on breaking that stoic guardian training of his. Except he had to do something with Loki and he could feel his control on him slipping so he considers his options. He could throw Loki back at Bucky but that’s just rude, he could throw Loki elsewhere and hope he didn’t try and eat Tony before Bucky gets to him or…

Tony flings his arms up and lets go of the magic as soon as Loki is sufficiently high in the air. He continues to fly up and Bucky’s eyes don’t leave him. “The fuck was that, Stark?” he asks.

“I think I’m telekinetic,” he says more out of shock than anything.

“What are you doing still sitting there, run damnit!” Bucky yells at him just as Loki hits the ground again. Only now he’s _pissed_ and Tony wastes no time in listening to Bucky and he gets up, scrambling a little before he starts running. Loki snarls and goes after him but in his haste he forgets to watch the deadly guy with the stake and Bucky steps into his path, expertly slamming the stake into Loki’s chest.

Tony pauses and considers things for a second now that he’s in the clear. “Jesus Tony keep running, did he not say he broke the wards? I’m pretty sure he didn’t do it for fun, get the fuck back to your dorm!” Bucky shrieks at him. He goes to turn to run off again but he reconsiders, running towards Bucky and all but slamming himself into him, ignoring dead Loki at his feet. He’d consider the crazy ass nightmares he was going to have about this later.

“Thanks for saving my life. Please don’t die,” he tells Bucky, pressing a hard kiss to his lips and running off before he gets eaten.

He isn’t really watching where he’s going when he runs, literally, into Rhodey. “Jesus man, what is going on!” he yells, catching Tony’s flailing fists long before they connect to him. Better to be safe than sorry Tony had figured, not that he would have been effective against Strigoi lingering around if _Rhodey_ managed to catch him.

“Loki went Strigoi, Bucky killed him, pretty sure there’s more on the way,” he breaths out and Rhodey curses.

“Wait, why were you so close to the guardian building?” he asks, frowning. “You know what, who cares, you need to get back to your dorm I already did some yelling at the guardians when I took off and I’m sure Bucky had some like… guardian code words or something to use. Now go,” he tells Tony, prodding him in the direction of his dorm.

But Rhodey doesn’t look like he’s headed back to his dorm. “Um, what are you doing?” he asks and Rhodey rolls his eyes, shoving him forward.

“Making sure your dumb ass gets back to your dorm now get _moving_ ,” he tells Tony, pushing him again and he has no choice but to go. Rhodey all but throws him through the door when they get to the dorm and takes off again yelling at the attendant to make sure Tony stayed inside.

“What’s going on?” someone says, looking frightened. Peter Parker, Tony thinks the kid’s name is. Pepper used to tutor him in English.

“Strigoi,” he breaths out, “Strigoi on campus!”

For a moment he can’t believe his eyes when the group takes a collective step _away_ from him before he rolls his eyes. “The Strigoi isn’t me you stupid fuckers, it was Loki before he got staked but there are more! Go hide or something!” he yells.

*

Peggy surveys the area looking for anything amiss. The alert went out twenty minutes ago and her guardians had confirmed that there were indeed more Strigoi at the schools edge- one managed to get in an estimated number too and her mind was boggled. _Fifty_ Strigoi. And that was what that particular guardian could see. She had people at the Moroi dorms, people at the outer edges of the school, people making sure the novices didn’t play hero, and now she was trying to decide what to do with herself.

There were plenty of places she could be useful; it was just a matter of where she’d be the _most_ useful. “Take me with you,” Maria says, almost managing to sneak up on Peggy.

“The hell I will, I don’t even know how you got here but you are going _back_ to the guest quarters immediately,” she tells her, tone final. It worked on her guardians and it worked on the novices but this is Maria Stark. The woman was stubborn as a mule and she had no intention of going anywhere. She was going to have to rethink things and fast.

“No, you’re taking me with you and we’re going to the elementary school, there are always less guardians there because you’d have to get through this campus to get to that one. I don’t think the Strigoi would have qualms going around though so lets _go_. You have no time to argue,” Maria says, voice hard and determined.

She wasn’t wrong so Peggy starts jogging. “This is not the time to prove a political point,” she tells Maria as they head to the elementary school campus.

“I’m not trying to prove a political point, I’m trying to make myself useful,” Maria tells her. Than the point was to herself but Peggy doesn’t say that. Maria had come to her some months ago, shortly after Howard died, and asked her to teach her how to fight. Maria did not like being a helpless woman and Peggy couldn’t fault her for that. But Moroi were hardly meant for battle and Maria would probably never be able to handle Strigoi the way Peggy could not that it had deterred Maria. Peggy had to admit she was impressed with Maria’s ability to learn and in the short space of a few months she was almost as good as her worst novices. That was more than a feat considering those novices trained for years to gain that skill and Maria almost had them beat. She still wasn’t as strong as she’d need to be though and her endurance was lacking. But she was good and she was determined to be better. Peggy was curious to see if it would really pay off in the end.

A flash of movement to her left catches her eye but the Strigoi is on fire before she can even react. Maria has it burnt to a crisp within seconds. “Don’t do that again,” Peggy tells her, adopting her Teacher Voice. “You’ll burn your magic out too quick if you do that and you’re relying on that to save both our asses,” she explains and they set off again.

When they get to the elementary campus Peggy is absolutely stunned not that she lets it distract her for long. She counts at least twenty five Strigoi as she launches herself at the nearest Strigoi, prepared to kill. Maria lights the ground at its feet aflame and it jumps back, yelling but leaving its chest wide open. Peggy stakes it without a second thought and moves on quickly. “Good thinking,” she yells at Maria, who repeats the action on a new Strigoi.

They work like that for some time before some guardian Peggy vaguely recognizes asks what Maria is doing there. She lets loose a ball of flame right in front of a Strigoi’s chest and it throws it’s arms back, giving Peggy the opening she’d been struggling to get for the last few minutes. “That!” Peggy yells as she stakes it. She moves on quickly, Maria shadowing her easily. Peggy kicks a Strigoi away from another guardian who had been struggling to take on two at a time and Maria lights a ball of flame to it’s left, causing it to jump out of the way in surprise. It doesn’t give Peggy the perfect opening but she takes it anyways, jamming the stake in awkwardly and forcing her weight into it to compensate for the awkward angle.

The Strigoi falls and Peggy is all but thrown aside by a new Strigoi, the one that had been battling it out with the guardian she kicked its buddy away from. That guardian was now limp on the ground, dead most likely. Peggy doesn’t pay too much attention as she dodges a kick from the Strigoi and gets to her feet faster than the Strigoi probably thought she was capable of. Maria lights it on fire and Peggy sighs, staking it as the Strigoi continues to flame. “Really?” she asks as a new Strigoi sneaks up behind Maria.

She turns with more than enough time and shoots a flame at it and it neatly dodges. It’s been watching, Peggy guesses, and she starts to plan her next move. “Maria Stark,” the Strigoi says, grinning at her, “I knew Howard.”

“Good,” Maria snarls, shooting another flame at it as it moves in to attack her. It flits back with enough grace that Peggy thinks it’s been trained. Certainly wasn’t a Dhampir before turning and it wasn’t tall or thin enough to have been a Moroi. It must have been human when it turned then, a rarity for Strigoi. “When you go to hell tell him I told him to fuck himself,” she says, shooting another flame at it.

It jumps back like it had been the last couple times but it hadn’t seen Peggy lurking in the background so it’s surprised when her stake hits home. “Can you leave the battle banter at home!” Peggy snaps at Maria. People thought Tony was like his father but they didn’t know Maria well enough to know he was like her through and through. He just acted like Howard sometimes.

“He started it,” Maria says in her own defense and Peggy rolls her eyes, moving on to the next Strigoi. They continue like that until Peggy is looking around for the next threat intently, wondering where it was.

“They’re all dead,” a guardian tells her and she looks around again. So they were and so were a few guardians. She feels a sharp pain in her heart but she doesn’t let it affect her thinking. She had no time for that. “Most of those are yours too, and hers,” the guardian tells her, pointing at Maria.

Maria kicks a near by Strigoi, “good,” she snarls. Peggy doesn’t think too much about how Maria had something to prove, how she had only joined in because she felt helpless with Howard and wanted to prove she could kill him over and over again now that she had some training.

“You guys keep this area under control, we’re going back to the main campus,” Peggy tells the guardian and she goes to move off but thinks better of it. “Oh, and grab a Moroi with an affinity for fire. You’ve seen how useful they are,” she tells him and she moves off, Maria on her heels.


	20. Chapter 20

Tony has never liked being helpless but they’ve all been shuttered off to the second floor common room because there was only one window that was difficult to get through in that area and they waned all the Moroi in one spot. Easier to keep track of that way. They’re all quiet for a long time because they don’t know what to make of this attack. Schools were safe; they had wards and guardians to keep them that way. That was an unspoken fact of the Moroi world and now that was done for. _Great_.

“What happened?” Peter asks him after nearly a half hour passes with no news.

“I was taking a morning walk,” he lies, “when Loki came up to me but I obviously didn’t think anything of it. We’re friends so I didn’t pay much attention until… well until he nearly _ate_ me.” he doesn’t mention anything else that happened in between because it wasn’t necessary.

“How did you live!” Peter asks, shocked. He used his strange magic but he doesn’t tell Peter that either. Instead he cuts right to the good stuff.

“Bucky saved my ass. He staked Loki,” he says softly.

Peter frowns, “but how was he so close? And how’d he sneak up in a Strigoi?” Good questions and Tony wants to smack him for it.

“Loki was talking and I was doing my best to keep him talking. Bucky was on duty and must have been quiet enough to sneak up while I was talking. He only attacked when Loki went for my throat. I didn’t pay attention to the specifics given that I was too worried about not dying.” That shuts Peter up thankfully and he gently reaches out to squeeze his arm before melting back into the crowd. By the time another half an hour passes Loki was making threats on Tony’s mortal soul while Tony gallantly called him an unnatural undead creature of the night. In their defense they weren’t exactly wrong and for once he wasn’t the Strigoi of the story so he lets people talk as much as they want.

*

Bucky has no idea how many Strigoi he’s killed, just that they kept coming and _coming_ , crawling out of the woodwork in impressive and terrifying numbers. He just keeps going at them though, not paying attention too much else but the Strigoi around him. His body hurts but he ignores that too, suddenly grateful that Tony had healed him not long ago because if he hadn’t he’d be dead no doubt. He wouldn’t have even been able to take out Loki let alone all these other Strigoi. When he catches brief snatches of his colleagues faces it’s pretty clear they’re impressed given that they all knew he had been injured not long ago. He lets them think whatever they wanted as he presses further into the mess of Strigoi, slashing at everything that wasn’t a guardian.

Finally, _finally_ things start to thin out and guardians were beginning to outnumber the Strigoi so Bucky takes a moment to survey the area. “You know,” a voice says from behind a tree close to Bucky, “I never would have thought you could be so deadly with only one arm. You look beautiful you know, like an angel taking revenge on those that have wronged him. You shouldn’t be so upset though, I was never wronged. I was Awakened.”

He knows the voice but he tries to deny it to himself because it can’t be true…

“Guardian rule number one, Bucky, don’t hesitate,” Steve says and he attacks. He barely has time to dodge Steve’s blow and he curses himself for it. This wasn’t Steve, this was a Strigoi. A strangely tall Strigoi but still definitely Steve Rogers. Well, _was_ Steve Rogers.

“You’re taller,” he says without really thinking, dodging another of Steve’s blows. He’s been training.

“Some uh… _experiments_ humans have been lovely enough to donate their time to. You should meet Zola, he’s brilliant. You’d probably hate each other,” Steve says, lashing out at him again. Bucky dodges and his brain informs him that he needs to stop being on the defensive and start taking an offensive stance. His brain also keeps telling him that Steve Rogers is standing in front of him alive and well even though that’s not true, not technically. He wasn’t alive and he _sure_ as hell wasn’t well. He is an undead unnatural creature and Bucky had to kill him.

“All Strigoi hate each other,” Bucky says, unsure why he’d imagine himself as a Strigoi in this situation. If he met this Zola it’d be because Steve was dragging his dead corpse around.

“Not true at all, Bucky. We’re just… prickly is all,” Steve tells him and he steps back, letting his arms drop. “Don’t bother stepping forward Buck, we both know you won’t kill me. I’ve only given you about seventeen chances and you didn’t even _nibble_. I know it isn’t because you lack skill, I just watched you single handedly take out an army. Do you like it by the way? They’re mine. Killed the last guy who thought he should be in charge because I have a real vision and he just wanted to terrorize Moroi. Useless. I’ll only give you this opportunity once, though, so listen closely. I can Awaken you right now and you can join me on this or you can stubbornly cling to the Moroi even though not one of them appreciate you- I’ve heard what they’re planning to do to Dhampirs- so make your choice. Till the end of the line?” he asks, looking almost hopeful.

That proves to be his mistake because that was his and Steve’s line, not some line to be uttered by some disgusting twisted version of Steve. Bucky launches himself at Steve and for a second he can see the surprise there but he ignores it because he wasn’t fucking around anymore. He was aiming to kill.

*

Charles had been trying to work on healing when the commotion started. Erik, he thinks, was trying to make him feel better when he said Charles’ efforts to heal those black spots in his aura were working because Charles doesn’t notice a difference.

“You need to calm it with this,” Erik tells him eventually. “You know what happens when you use the power too much.” So he did but Erik’s aura was so dark and Charles thought knew it was because of trauma but he didn’t think it was _completely_ trauma until Tony told him there wasn’t much else that could do that to an aura. He knew more than Charles about the subject because he has been seeing auras longer.

“But I need to learn,” Charles tells him. It’s been fascinating but neither Tony nor Charles have been able to pick each other’s tricks up no matter how hard they tried. Charles even tried to teach Tony how to enter dreams _in_ a dream. Nothing seemed to take.

That was, of course, until the commotion started and Erik got called off to duty and Charles sat in his room for what seemed like _days_ going through every ‘what if’ scenario his brain tortured him with. He could feel Erik’s mind of course but he knew how much Erik disliked when he touched his mind and Charles agreed that it was wrong to use that kind of power on someone. It was invasive and disturbing even if it was natural to Charles.

Its at least six hours, probably more, by the time Charles gets news that the school has officially been cleared and Charles immediately goes to the medical building. Erik had to be there if he wasn’t safe elsewhere and Charles couldn’t get a read on his mind. Probably because he was so distraught that his abilities have fizzled out. They did that sometimes, when his mind was about to get bad again. He ignores that in favor of going to find Erik.

He’s surprised to find Tony there desperately trying to explain his abilities before he eventually gives up and reaches out to… Bucky it looked like and Charles watches his wounds disappear. The doctors and nurses look confused and awed but Tony is already shushing Bucky and telling him to stay down because he was still pretty hurt, he just wasn’t in critical condition anymore. He quickly moves on to the next and Charles approaches. “Have you seen Erik?” he asks.

“Lehnsherr?” the guardian to his left croaks, “pretty sure he’s dead. Saw him go down before-” he starts coughing and Tony goes over to him next, reaching out with his magic to heal him. He can see the flare of gold in Tony’s aura, sitting around him like some kind of halo as he heals.

Charles freezes though, unable to comprehend that news as he desperately tries to find Erik’s mind privacy be damned. “He isn’t dead I don’t think, I think he’s in the next room,” some other guardian says, snapping him out of his trance. She’s less injured than a lot of others in here but Charles doesn’t stop to look too closely he just runs for the next room, ignoring that he nearly runs almost four people over.

Erik is indeed in the next room with several people around him looking grim. Even from here Charles can see all the blood. No one should be able to lose that much blood. “Erik!” he calls, rushing forward.

“Charles, it’s no use, he’s-” some doctor starts but Charles turns on him fast.

“Shut up!” he snarls, throwing as much compulsion into the command as he can. The doctor’s mouth clicks shut and Charles ignores when he hears the doctor fall to the floor, crumbling under the force of Charles’ command. “Erik!” he says again, “Erik you need to wake up!” He can feel the tears on his cheeks as he uselessly shakes at Erik, trying desperately to do something but Erik isn’t responding. “Erik!” Charles tries again, barely able to get the work out through his tears. He shakes Erik again somewhat feebly, unwilling to accept the truth even if he had no choice.

Then he feels it, that magic Tony drew upon that had led Charles to him in the first place. He could feel it and maybe, maybe if he used it on Erik he could do what Tony did and bring him back. Tony brought his best friend back Charles could bring his back too, he could. He throws the magic at Erik, trying his best to make his intentions clear and something must work because Erik wakes up sputtering.

“Charles! Stop it!” Erik tells him, trying to sit up but failing because he was weak. Charles throws himself on Erik and hugs him.

“Thank god! Thank _god_! I couldn’t have lived without you!” he says, sobbing into Erik’s shirt. Erik awkwardly pats his back as Charles continues to cry.

*

Rhodey was going to be pissed that Tony told everyone about his healing powers but he couldn’t just sit around when people needed help. Especially after he heard his _mother_ had gotten herself involved. Boy had she been shocked to see him buzzing around healing people, and later she got to be shocked when he healed her.

Bucky was his main concern though so when the dust settles Tony goes back to him. He’d been pretty hurt when he got to Tony but he’d faired better than a lot of the other guardians. “How are you?” he asks. He’s been awake too long and he can feel the use of his magic weighing down on him heavily. And then there was that weird flare of magic earlier, he felt it in the other room but he was going to check that out later. Right now he needed to deal with Bucky because the man looked absolutely _haunted_.

“It was Steve,” he whispers, looking traumatized.

Tony frowns, “who was Steve?”

Bucky turns to look at him, “the Strigoi. Steve is behind it all. _My_ Steve. Steve _Rogers_.”

 _That_ throws Tony for a loop because he hadn’t anticipated that. “Oh,” he says stupidly. He doesn’t know what else he _could_ say though. When Bucky reaches out to him he goes, hugging Bucky close and letting him cry softly. He’d cry too if he found out Rhodey was behind several massacres, some of which targeted him specifically. “Shhh,” Tony says softly, “I’m here for you.”

“Thank you,” Bucky whispers, clinging to Tony tightly.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's done! Me!
> 
> Sorry about the open ending tho.

Schools, and the Court, on principal were thought to be untouchable. They had wards, and guardians, and other staff to ensure the safety of children and that had just hit the fan. Moroi were losing their shit but Tony remained a weird kind of calm. It was like he was watching a movie or something in which everyone was freaking out and he felt… well pretty safe still. That was probably stupid of him but the Strigoi had barely penetrated the campus- the furthest they got was just outside of his dorm and apparently Peggy and Maria showed up to save the day there. The guardians stationed around the dorm obviously helped too but it was Peggy and Maria that were the talk of… well everywhere.

Tony had thrown out the insane idea that Moroi could fight but no one believed it. His single example had been in an emotional time, most who even listened to the argument cited Maria’s use of fire as a fluke. There was nothing accidental about what she did to all those Strigoi with Peggy and the results were better than good, they were _stellar_. Every single guardian at the scene by the elementary school said they never could have done what they did without Maria’s help. Talk about Moroi fighting was growing, much to Tony’s surprise. Hell, even his encounter with Loki had gotten around though the details were still muddled on that one as far as the public knew. No one knew what to make of his ability to heal or any of the other abilities he had. Someone even suggested he somehow faked it until Charles jumped in with his own admission that Tony’s magic was real, he could do some of the things he could as well.

It had been _deeply_ satisfying to Tony to show all those jackasses who claimed he’d be useless in a fight that he actually had a use. They couldn’t claim his inability to join in was the reason he advocated for Moroi fighting anymore, not that the convoluted argument ever made sense. Also it was fun to throw all their plates of food on their laps given that’s when some Vankov- Tony couldn’t remember his first name- decided to make a snide comment to him. They all had to admit that telepathy was pretty useful and Tony had already proven to himself that it was. Rhodey, as per usual, was pissed about all of this but what was he to do?

*

The influx of guardians was something Tony should have expected but he was still surprised when a bunch showed up. Some were only there for investigation purposes but there were quite a few who were there to replace guardians who had died and as extra security. Rhodey seems to be sizing them all up but Tony mostly ignored them. They weren’t really relevant to him outside of a passing curiosity at least until he’s ambushed by a pretty brunette.

“You’re Tony Stark, right?” she asks. Something about her dark hair and blue eyes looks familiar but he ignores it.

“Yeah. And you are?” he asks, wondering why a guardian would be seeking _him_ out of all people. The guardian was stunning too, like freakishly beautiful given that she probably got beat up a lot. Tony thought it was unfair that she didn’t have to try like he did, he’d look like road kill if he got beat up on a regular basis.

“Rebecca!” a new voice calls and they both turn to face, of all people, Bucky stalking towards them. “What are you doing?” he snaps as he gets close. Tony looks between the two and notes Rebecca’s amused expression. They knew each other than, there was no way they didn’t. Familiarity was present in both of their auras too; they indicated there was a long history there.

“Just talking to the guy you’re clearly sneaking around with. The guardians here really need to up their observation skills if they haven’t noticed,” she says flatly. Tony’s jaw drops, which would have confirmed what she said was true even if she didn’t already know it was. Bucky doesn’t react at all but that was normal for guardians.

“Leave him alone, Becca,” Bucky says in a weary tone.

“And miss out on embarrassing the crap out of my big brother? I don’t think so. Did he ever tell you about the time we went camping and he and Steve accidentally rolled around in poison oak? Priceless, we have pictures of them and they were _so_ grumpy,” she says, snickering.

“We were seven, Becca. Everyone is a little bit of an idiot at seven,” Bucky points out. Tony neglects his own story with plants that were terribly reactive with the skin because he had been fifteen at the time and he felt that he should have known what poison ivy looked like.

“Fine, did he tell you about that time he accidentally lost Steve in a corn field in Memphis when he was nineteen? _That_ had been hilarious,” she says, looking smug.

Bucky doesn’t look smug at all, he looks annoyed. “That wasn’t funny! For all I knew he was _dead_ , it was night time!” he says.

“How’d you find him?” Tony asks more out of curiosity than anything.

“By stomping through the field threatening to kill anything that went near Steve, including two rabbits and a scarecrow,” Becca says.

“It turned out he and this kid were standing too close and I accidentally mistook the kid for him because I wasn’t paying enough attention. How he got lost in the field I have no clue,” Bucky mumbles, looking uncomfortable. Given light of recent events Tony figured it was time to change the subject from Steve to literally anything else.

“So I guess you’re here as some kind of backup?” he asks Becca.

She shrugs, “more or less. I’m a recent graduate and I don’t have an assignment yet so I volunteered to come here. Didn’t expect to find my brother in some kind of weird romance with a twelve year old, no offense,” she says.

Tony squints, “you would have graduated last year, which means you’re only a year older than me at the most. Are you also twelve?” he asks. He was offended at this assumption of him being a child. Young, sure, a child? Not so much.

“He makes a point,” Bucky tells his sister, grinning.

“Peggy will leave you be so don’t worry about your granny beating your ass,” Tony says. He was sure he could talk some sense into the woman; he doubted she hasn’t noticed something by now. Rhodey was certainly suspicious.

“You joke but you don’t know her,” Bucky says, “she’s a scary woman.”

Tony shakes his head, “Strigoi? You’ll happily throw yourself at those but here you are flipping out at the potential for your grandmother to find out about your relationship. Which is _barely_ illegal might I add. I’ll be eighteen in a few months,” he points out.

It’s obviously the wrong thing to say because Becca gives Bucky a _look_.

“This is better than that time I stole Mom’s car with Falsworth, admit it.”

“Only because you two idiots totaled the car. You idiot why are you dating a teeny bopper!” she hisses.

“Uh, excuse me the teeny bopper is right here,” Tony points out.

“I swear he’s more mature than he seems,” Bucky says in his own defense.

Becca wrinkles her nose, “that is like Line One in the How To Be A Creep Handbook, Bucky. What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Look I know that but… well just spend some time with him, you’ll get it,” he says.

“I certainly hope not even if I’m more age appropriate!” Becca exclaims. Her hands are on her hips and her aura indicates that she is _not_ impressed with her sibling.

“Do I get a say here?” Tony asks when there is a moment of silence.

“You’re ten so no,” Becca tells him.

“Well you’re eleven so you shouldn’t judge,” Tony says, nose in the air. If he had to be a child she could suffer too, she couldn’t be more than a year older than him.

“You want to rethink that maturity statement?” Becca asks, raising an eyebrow.

“You called him a child first, he’s only pointing out the flaws in your argument,” Bucky points out.

Becca pinches the bridge of her nose. “Oh boy,” she mumbles.

*

Tony doesn’t expect to run into Bucky’s freakishly hot sister again but she finds him a few days after they met initially and she looks determined. Her aura reflects it too. “You,” she says, pinning him with a stare, “I’ve been watching you.”

“Creepy,” Tony comments but continues staring at the piece of silver he was trying to charm. Everyone else could charm silver with the elements, why wouldn’t he be able to? So far he’s done an awful job and Charles was… well far worse than he was actually. Aside from Erik he still couldn’t channel healing even when he knew the general concept. He did manage to make a rose shiver with the magic yesterday though. That was something. Tony hasn’t picked up any of Charles’ tricks at all but he does quickly get ahold of his ability to levitate things. Charles managed to give himself a headache trying that but that was all he managed.

“I don’t get my brother’s weird attraction to you,” she says.

“Good thing _you_ aren’t dating him then,” he mumbles, glaring at the silver. It occurs to him that he’s more grumpy than usual but it’s hard to tell if that’s due to his annoyance at his inability to charm things or if it was because of his strange magic.

“But he seems to care about you,” she continues, “and after Steve I didn’t think he’d care about anyone ever again, himself included. But I guess you changed that so I… don’t approve but it could be worse I guess.” She doesn’t look happy about this, her aura confirms she isn’t, but Tony wasn’t looking for approval.

“Lovely. That all?” he asks, still mostly ignoring her.

“I… guess. What are you even doing? Trying to glare a hole through that silver?” she asks.

Finally he sits back, annoyed with his lack of progress. “Do you mind holding this?” he asks, handing her the bracelet. She was nice enough to take it but yelps as soon as it touches her, dropping it immediately.

“What the hell was that?” she asks.

“Not what I wanted,” he says and picks up the bracelet. Becca raises an eyebrow but says nothing, turning to leave but Tony’s words stop her. “How much has Bucky told you about the attack here?” he asks softly.

Something in his voice must tip her off because when she turns to face him again she’s wearing one of five expressions Tony sees guardians use. “What is it?” she asks. Confusion is all over her aura, indicating Bucky had likely told her nothing.

“The person behind the attacks,” he says, “I know who it is.” Becca’s eyebrows just about hit her hairline and she scrambles forward.

“Well who is it?” she asks with a note of urgency to her voice.

Tony looks grim, “it’s… it’s Steve. Rogers,” he clarifies. “Bucky did his best but I don’t think anyone would really expect him to be able to stake his best friend, even if it isn’t Steve anymore.”Becca’s jaw drops and her entire demeanor changes.

“Shit. _Shit_. I have to kill him,” she says like this was nothing instead of a rather large sacrifice for her brother.

“I was hoping you’d say that. But I uh, actually have other ideas,” he says and he hands her a page out of one of Loki’s books. He’d been useful for something at least; it turned out they had a good portion of information about his magic. Most of it was compulsion related and honestly the things Tony could do with that were… not things he really wanted to try. When Charles had read on the compulsion techniques in the book even he had looked a little sick and he’d used some of the same magic on his stepbrother once. They both decided that magic was better left untouched.

“This isn’t just impossible, it’s suicide,” she tells him.

“Given the damage Rogers has caused I think going after him in _any_ capacity is suicide,” Tony points out. Becca could hardly disagree there. “Besides, even if I fail he’d still be dead technically.”

“If _you_ fail?” she asks.

“Well yeah, you don’t have the magic to bring him back to life,” Tony says, “I’d have to stake him.”

Becca shakes her head, “Bucky told me that magic of yours drives you insane but I think you’re already gone.”

Tony doesn’t care what she thinks because he already knew she was on board with his plan anyways. Steve Rogers had to die and she couldn’t afford getting picky about who staked him.

*

Charles chases Tony down a week after the attack looking shockingly excited. “I found another!” he says as soon as he’s close enough.

“Another what?” Tony asks, sensing Rhodey’s question as well.

“Another person who can use our magic, come see!” Charles says, yanking Tony out of his seat.

He goes mostly because Charles didn’t look like he was about to say no any time soon. Erik lingers around him creepy as ever but his aura was lighter, healed a little by Charles’ magic. Tony had yet to see the darkness that pops up in Charles’ aura from that stunt but it would eventually. Knowing that shadow kissed people could soak that up scared him given Erik’s previous instability but he figured that was Charles’ problem. He did, at least, learn that being shadow kissed _was_ due to dying and being brought back for sure now. He could see the same shadows in Erik’s aura that were in Rhodey’s.

“There!” Charles tells him when they get to the guardian building. At first Tony is about to tell Charles he needed to check his auras but then he sees the gold. He isn’t the only one either. The guy notices them too and he briefly tells the person he’s handing boxes off to something before he turns away. His aura indicated that he was fond of whomever he was talking to. Tony could tell even at this distance that the woman was a Dhampir. Poor bastard then, they’d never work out. Tony only had more faith in his relationship because reproductive capacity was off the table. Moroi men always ended up with Moroi women though so this guy’s relationship was damned.

“You two,” he says upon approach, “you two have gold auras. And you’re shadow kissed,” he says, pointing at Erik.

Even Erik looks surprised at that, “you know what shadow kissed is then?” Tony asks.

“Do you know what the magic is? What can you do with it?” Charles asks before their companion can respond.

He frowns and examines Tony and Charles, “you two… don’t know?” He sighs and suggests they meet up later, which the obviously agree to.

*

Bruce has only ever met people like himself in psych wards. The golden auras there were what he was used to and it always made him uncomfortable to know he would be in one of those wards too some day, that was how it worked. He explains this to Charles Xavier and Tony Stark of all people, both of whom were leaning forward in interest.

“But is there a way to stop it?” Charles asks.

“And what _is_ it?” Tony throws out.

It takesBruce another few moments and a sneak peek at their auras, to figure out that they’re telling the truth. “It’s… well it was known as spirit back when people still knew about it. It’s an internal element though. The other elements, they draw from the things _around_ them- air users draw from the air, water users from water, you get the point. But spirit… the only place you can take that from is yourself. It’s why we go insane,” he says. There was only so much of themselves they could give away until there was nothing but madness left.

Charles and Tony exchange a glance at that before turning to Bruce as one. “And there’s no way to stop it?” Charles asks softly.

Bruce nods at Erik, “the shadow kissed can help, but when they absorb the darkness they don’t process it like we do. They can only take so much too and then it becomes too much for them too. He knows,” Bruce says, nodding at Tony. Charles looks at him too and Tony sighs.

“I figured this out recently with Rhodey. Usually I do my best not to use the magic but I’ve been using it a lot lately with without the usual uh… vices. He’s been checking in on my moods more when they start going wild but he accidentally started absorbing them. I’ve been unknowingly healing the moods out trying to heal his weird aura,” he explains.

“You can do that but the balance is a fine one. Use too much of the magic you go insane, use too little it’ll start to call to you. It’s dangerous,” he says. He knew from experience. Tony and Charles seem to pick up on this and ask about it. “I knew a woman once, Jean Grey. She hadn’t specialized so of course no one knew that the element that she actually specialized in had long been forgotten and she didn’t know the consequences of using her power. She used it too much and it destroyed her, and her shadow kissed partner. They both went insane and she ended up killing them both in a spirit-induced haze. I’ve tried to avoid using the magic after that but it calls.” Oh did it ever and Betty is a guardian. She was always hurt and it hurt to not be able to help her. He learned to make charms though and those healed her just as well, he just made sure to slip on of the charms onto her without Ross noticing. Bruce has never been fond of the man and he wasn’t fond of Bruce either.

“Do you have any uh… affects?” Tony asks.

Bruce nods, “angry outbursts usually. Betty has nicknamed it ‘hulking out’ for some reason.” The nickname annoyed him but he let her cope with it the only way she knew how.“Well,” Tony says, “this has been sufficiently terrifying. Lets go do something less depressing.”

*

Tony learns Bruce was adept at charms especially, but he could touch minds like Charles, see auras, and he had the telekinesis. He had no idea he could dream walk though and Charles had no clue about the charms. Tony had only guessed. So they start comparing their powers, learning that Tony was still the most gifted healer, Bruce was hands down the best in charms considering the other two only just found out about them, Charles was still the only dream walker and he was better with the telepathy, and Bruce and Tony proved to be evenly matched for the telekinesis. It was more than Tony ever expected to find out that was for sure.

“What are you thinking about?” Bucky asks. He looks concerned but that was because Tony started talking without making much sense earlier. Too much use of spirit he guessed.

“Rhodey,” he says, “and spirit. I don’t care if I go nuts, but I can’t do that to him. Bruce says the only way to break the bond is to kill him.” Tony obviously couldn’t do that so he guessed he was stuck with finding some other way to ensure Rhodey didn’t suck up the spirit darkness. He _knew_ he was still doing it too because he felt better not very long after his rambling earlier. Damn Rhodey.

Bucky pulls him close, “you should be careful and not just for Rhodey but for you too. I don’t think I can lose someone else, not again. I love you too much for that,” he says softly, pressing his lips to the top of Tony’s head.

He figured it was best to leave his insane plans regarding Steve to himself then. “I love you too,” he says honestly.


End file.
